View all newsletters
Sign up for our free email newsletters

Fighting for quality news media in the digital age.

  1. Archive content
October 11, 2007

Now redtops have fared since the 1950s

By Press Gazette

Long before the internet – or even widespread TV and radio news – it is probably not surprising that far more newspapers were sold in the Fifties than today.

But the falls have been by far the sharpest for the red tops.

In 1950 the News of the World had a sale, astonishing by today’s standards, of more than 8.4 million.

Throughout the Fifties, the Daily Mirror and the Express were selling more than four million a day each and The People was selling more than five million – compared to the latest ABC of 741,033.

The red tops have always been more about entertainment than the quality market papers, so the proliferation of entertainment options has hit them particularly hard – from PlayStations to Sunday shopping, from multichannel TV to the internet.

But while the decline for some titles has been staggering, the picture for the press as a whole is not all doom and gloom.

Some papers have actually put on sales since the Fifties – The Guardian used to sell 140,000 compared with around 370,000 today and the Financial Times sold only around 57,000 compared with more than 400,000 today.

Content from our partners
MHP Group's 30 To Watch awards for young journalists open for entries
How PA Media is helping newspapers make the digital transition
Publishing on the open web is broken, how generative AI could help fix it

A look back at this chart reveals that the current onslaught on red-top circulations is nothing new. If anything, the declines of the late Sixties and early Seventies, in the face of competition from the burgeoning TV and radio industries was even more severe than the losses being suffered today.

Email pged@pressgazette.co.uk to point out mistakes, provide story tips or send in a letter for publication on our "Letters Page" blog

Select and enter your email address Weekly insight into the big strategic issues affecting the future of the news industry. Essential reading for media leaders every Thursday. Your morning brew of news about the world of news from Press Gazette and elsewhere in the media. Sent at around 10am UK time. Our weekly does of strategic insight about the future of news media aimed at US readers. A fortnightly update from the front-line of news and advertising. Aimed at marketers and those involved in the advertising industry.
  • Business owner/co-owner
  • CEO
  • COO
  • CFO
  • CTO
  • Chairperson
  • Non-Exec Director
  • Other C-Suite
  • Managing Director
  • President/Partner
  • Senior Executive/SVP or Corporate VP or equivalent
  • Director or equivalent
  • Group or Senior Manager
  • Head of Department/Function
  • Manager
  • Non-manager
  • Retired
  • Other
Visit our privacy Policy for more information about our services, how New Statesman Media Group may use, process and share your personal data, including information on your rights in respect of your personal data and how you can unsubscribe from future marketing communications.
Thank you

Thanks for subscribing.

Websites in our network