Cumbria Newspapers digital strategy manager Nick Turner made redundant after 25 years with group
Survey: When asked which type of news in newspapers they trust, one in three said 'none of it'
Seven UK national newspapers are currently losing sales at a rate of more than ten per cent year on year, according to the latest ABC figures for December.
The UK’s top selling daily, The Sun, fell 10.5 per cent year on year to an average of 1,611,464 copies per day. It has added an extra 34,000 free bulk copies year on year, meaning the paid-for sale declined by 12.6 per cent when these are taken out of the equation.
The other big fallers were: the Sunday Mirror (down 16.3 per cent), the Daily Mirror (down 11.68 per cent), Sunday People (down 15.1 per cent), Daily Star Sunday (down 13.2 per cent), Sunday Mail (down 12.7 per cent) and the Sunday Post (down 13.5 per cent).
The only titles to grow print sales year on year were The Sunday Times and The Times, helped by increased free bulk copies (often distributed at hotels and airports).
When bulks are taken out of the equation, actively-purchased sales of The Sunday Times fell 3 per cent year on year. Without bulks sales of The Times were flat year on year – making it the best-performing print title.
| Title | Dec 16 | MoM% | YoY% | Bulks |
| The Sun | 1,611,464 | -2.34 | -10.5 | 95,360 |
| Daily Mail | 1,491,264 | 0.62 | -6.7 | 66,283 |
| Metro (free) | 1,475,543 | -0.36 | 9.67 | |
| The Sun on Sunday | 1,383,048 | -1.69 | -5.83 | 94,394 |
| The Mail on Sunday | 1,284,121 | -0.57 | -7.34 | 64,249 |
| Evening Standard (free) | 847,936 | -5.8 | -1.07 | |
| The Sunday Times | 792,210 | -0.71 | 3.84 | 80,921 |
| Daily Mirror | 716,923 | -2.27 | -11.68 | 34,000 |
| Sunday Mirror | 620,861 | -2.38 | -16.28 | 34,000 |
| The Daily Telegraph | 460,054 | 1.01 | -3.44 | 22,618 |
| The Times | 446,164 | 0.79 | 9.18 | 76,919 |
| Daily Star | 440,471 | -2.64 | -2.49 | |
| Daily Express | 391,626 | -1.02 | -2.27 | |
| The Sunday Telegraph | 359,287 | -1.29 | 2.31 | 25,561 |
| Sunday Express | 335,271 | -2.85 | -5.63 | |
| i | 264,067 | -1.81 | -1.63 | 57,977 |
| Daily Star – Sunday | 257,790 | -2.41 | -13.22 | |
| Sunday People | 239,364 | -3.59 | -15.09 | 7,000 |
| Financial Times | 193,211 | 0.74 | -7.67 | 21,654 |
| The Observer | 182,140 | -4.29 | -0.83 | |
| Sunday Mail | 172,513 | -0.34 | -12.68 | 3,806 |
| The Guardian | 161,091 | 1.26 | -2.98 | |
| Daily Record | 160,557 | -0.54 | -9.7 | 4,923 |
| Sunday Post | 142,863 | -1.38 | -13.5 | |
| City AM (free) | 90,911 | -0.49 | -7.93 |
Media and Communication Manager (Shift Worker), Met Police
News Editor, Sky Sports News
Sports Sub-Editor, Times and Sunday Times
Actually, I came here specifially to look up the saintly Grauniad’s figures as I knew they were awful for a ‘national’ paper. What surprised me was its number of daily online hits. I know that the Mailonline, with half as many hits again a day, is now in profit, courtesy of the advertising it carries, and I wonder whether money made from online hits is keeping the Guardian afloat. Actually, I was looking up several facts about the Guardian, and came across the astonishing news that the Scott Trust Ltd (note the ‘Ltd’ – it is no longer a trust) has in these past few years sold off its regional titles, including the Manchester Evening News. And as it has previously sold off Autotrader to shore up its finances, it is no wonder it has – embarrassingly – resorted to more or less begging for money. Here’s my suggestion: produce a newspaper which the public wants to buy and bump up circulation again rather than holding out a begging hand.
But why does it matter? Surely the interest in how, for example the Standard, compares to figures from a year, two years, three years etc ago? This comparison would give some indication of how healthy to paper is. I agree that it is not a ‘national’ paper, but then comparing it with evening papers in other cities would be just as misleading.