ABC National Newspaper Round-Up: March 2010

Daily Newspaper Market

The daily national newspaper market was down 5.4% year on year in March, although it recorded a 0.5% period on period increase.

Just one title, the Daily Star, was up year on year, although month on month comparisons show that seven titles enjoyed circulation growth.

Quality Daily Titles

In the Quality daily sector, the Financial Times was up 2.8% on February, although year on year it was down 6.4%. It now has a total circulation of more than 401,000 copies.

It was a tough month for both the Guardian and Times, down 17% and 16.3% year on year respectively. The two papers also saw their circulations fall 0.5% month on month.

The Guardian now has a circulation of 283,000 copies, while the Times‘s stands at under 503,000.

The Daily Telegraph and Independent were both down by around 10% year on year, although they managed to record slight period on period increases, of 0.2% and 0.3% respectively.

The Daily Telegraph‘s circulation now stands at around 687,000, while the Independent‘s is closer to 184,000.

Towards the end of March, Evening Standard-owner Alexander Lebedev bought the Independent and Independent on Sunday for £1 from Irish publishers Independent News & Media.

Mid-Market Daily Titles

In the Mid-Market, the Daily Express was down 0.7% period on period, to around 668,000, while the Daily Mail‘s circulation dipped 1.4% over the same time-frame, leaving it at around 2 million.

Popular Daily Titles

It was a pretty good month for the Popular titles when comparing March figures with February data, as all of the titles in our analysis recorded period on period increases.

The Daily Mirror was up 1% on February, to 1.2 million (down 6.9% year on year), while the Daily Record was up 1.6% to 333,000 (down 7% year on year).

Up 0.9% year on year and 2.9% period on period, the Daily Star now has a circulation of 827,000 copies.

The Sun, which saw its total dip to 2.97 million in February, was back past the 3 million mark in March following a 1.1% period on period increase, although it was down 2% on March 2009.

Sunday Newspaper Market

None of the Sunday national newspaper titles recorded circulation growth in March, the ABC figures show.

The Observer suffered the largest year on year decline, of 23.1%.

Quality Sunday Titles

Following its hefty year on year fall, the Observer now has a circulation of under 332,000 copies. It was down 3.2% on February.

The Independent on Sunday recorded a 0.9% period on period fall in its circulation in March, leaving its total at around 154,000.