The Scottish Sun is now officially only 12,376 copies behind the Scottish Daily Record as they slog it out in a cut-price war for the position of Scotland's topselling daily newspaper.
The latest ABC figures show the Daily Record's average Scottish sale during May was down to 407,249 with the Scottish Sun closing the gap at 394,873.
However, according to the latest trade estimates for the week ending 3 June, the Scottish Sun is now ahead of the Daily Record on five days of the week — forging in front by as much as 19,000 copies on 31 May with respective figures of 404,000 and 385,000.
But the Daily Record continues to substantially outsell the Scottish Sun on Saturdays, and the estimated 3 June figures put the Daily Record at 480,000 and the Scottish Sun at 400,000.
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The Saturday sale is held as significant by Mark Hollinshead, managing director of the Scottish Daily Record and Sunday Mail Ltd, who points out: "The gap is 80,000 copies on a Saturday because the Record is 55p and the Sun is 55p. That demonstrates the real market position."
The Sun started the price war 18 months ago by trimming its cover price in the Record's West of Scotland heartland from 30p to 20p. It then cut its price across Scotland to 10p at the end of March.
The Record fought back by being available at 15p when bought using a voucher from the previous day's edition.
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Scottish Sun editor David Dinsmore told Press Gazette: "This is another fantastic result for the Scottish Sun. We're attracting more readers on a daily basis while they are turning away from the Daily Record in their droves."
The price war is understood to be costing the Sun between £1.5m and £2m a month, but there are no signs of it relenting — and next April, new printing presses will offer the tabloid the opportunity to produce full-colour 144-page editions.
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