The Mail on Sunday has lost most of the readership gains it made following the closure of the News of the World.
But new circulation figures released today by the Audit Bureau of Circulations show that it was still the top-selling national Sunday newspaper in August, with an average sale of 2,098,244 copies a week (up 6.8 per cent year on year).
In June, the News of the World’s last full month in existence, the Mail on Sunday sold 1,927,791 copies a week. The News of the World sold 2.7m copies a week that month.
The Daily Star Sunday remains the paper to have made the biggest relative gain following the NoW’s closure. Its new package, which includes a free version of OK magazine, sold 744,981 copies a week in August (up 95.4 per cent year on year).
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The Sunday Mirror has gained the most sales with a circulation of 1.9m in August, up 66.7 per cent year on year. The People also rose by 66 per cent to 892,033 copies a week.
Looking at the dailies, The Independent’s headline sales figure was down just 1.1 per cent year on year to 180,470 making it the best performer. But when free bulk copies are taken out of the picture its paid-for sale fell by 12 per cent year on year to 105,181 a day.
Meanwhile, its cut-price daily stablemate i showed steady four per cent growth month on month to 191,077 copies a day.
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The Guardian and Observer have pointed out that their year-on-year comparisons are worsened by the fact that the company made a decision to stop selling the papers overseas.
The Financial Times may have dropped by 12 per cent year on year worldwide, but it is performing better in the UK where its paid-for sale dropped by 5.3 per cent to 69,369 copies a day.
Full UK national press circulation breakdown for August 2011 (source ABC)
Name of title: Average sale, percentage change year on year
Dailies
- Daily Mirror : 1,174,924 ; -4.71
- Daily Record : 307,794 ; -7.14
- Daily Star : 703,218 ; -18.42
- The Sun : 2,795,601 ; -7.12
- Daily Express : 629,764 ; -6.20
- Daily Mail : 2,063,738 ; -4.88
- The Daily Telegraph : 632,070 ; -6.08
- Financial Times : 331,883 ; -11.87
- The Herald : 48,629 ; -11.80
- The Guardian : 241,287 ; -11.33
- i : 191,077 ;
- The Independent : 180,470 ; -1.07
- The Scotsman : 42,581 ; -7.71
- The Times : 449,938 ; -8.96
Sundays
- Daily Star Sunday : 744,981 ; 95.39
- Sunday Mail : 419,962 ; 5.65
- Sunday Mirror : 1,900,460 ; 66.69
- The People : 892,033 ; 66.00
- Sunday Express : 677,779 ; 17.90
- Sunday Post : 329,730 ; 0.31
- The Mail on Sunday : 2,098,244 ; 6.78
- Independent on Sunday : 164,518 ; 4.97
- The Observer : 274,304 ; -11.25
- Scotland on Sunday : 55,866 ; -6.45
- Sunday Herald : 31,349 ; -28.71
- The Sunday Telegraph : 499,612 ; -1.41
- The Sunday Times : 1,011,385 ; -5.14
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