Scottish newspaper readership falls

Feb 11 2008

New data in shows winners and losers in print media stakes

THE Scotsman and Sunday Herald were the biggest losers in the latest batch of Scottish newspaper circulation figures.

The Edinburgh-based daily, owned by Johnston Press, recorded a year-on-year drop in full-rate sales in January of almost eight per cent to 50,430, according to the Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC).

It's Glasgow-based rival, the Herald, fared little better with a 7.23 per cent drop, selling an average of 66,275 copies last month.

The Sunday Herald was the poorest performing indigenous Sunday title, selling an average of just 50,955 copies - a drop of more than 10 and a half per cent year-on-year.

Critics of its American-owned publisher Newsquest blame a decrease in pagination, reduction in the number of journalists along with a price increase to £1.40 for the sharp decline.

The bad news for the Sunday Herald was compounded by main rival Scotland on Sunday's performance in January, which saw it drop just two per cent to record an average full-rate sale of 66,484 copies.

The Sunday Mail reinforced its position as Scotland's best-selling Sunday paper with an average full-rate sale of 459,236, down 5.15 per cent year-on-year.

Meanwhile heavy promotional activity saw the Sun's full price sale in Scotland increase by three per cent to 91,527 last month.

But this figure still sees it trailing the Daily Record in full-rate sales by 277,966.

The Record recorded an average full-rate sale of 369,493 for January, down just over five per cent year-on-year, according to ABC.

Business7, Scotland's best-read weekly free business title among the nation's media and marketing community, will publish monthly circulation figures for all Scottish national and major regional newspapers.

Our methodology, when measuring performance, will be based on ABC's definition of "full-rate sales", which is the number of copies sold at the normal selling price.

The table below shows the number of copies sold at full price across the whole of Scotland in January.

DAILY NEWSPAPER MARKET

                          Jan08      Jan07

Rank/Title            FRSales  FR Sales   %+/-

1. Daily Record      369,493    389,534     -5.14

2. Sun in Scotland   91,527      88,787    +3.09

3. The Herald          66,275       71,438    -7.23

4. Scotsman           50,430       54,788    -7.95

5. Daily Mail            33,269       33,951    -2.01

6. Daily Mirror          33,200       37,644    -11.8

7. The Times            18,553      18,646      -0.50

8. Guardian              16,229      15,196      +7.26

9. Daily Telegraph     15,040      16,732      -10.11

SUNDAY NEWSPAPER MARKET

                                     Jan08        Jan07

Rank/Title                      FR Sales   FR Sales   %+/-

1. Sunday Mail               459,236     484,192     -5.15

2. News of the World      300,586      312,821     -3.91

3. Sunday Post              280,417      293,700     -4.52

4. Mail on Sunday          116,473      114,481     +1.74

5. Scotland on Sunday     66,484        67,856      -2.02

6. Sunday Herald             50,955        56,978     -10.57

7. Sunday Express          45,752        51,244     -10.72

8. Sunday Mirror              31,208        34,885     -10.54

9. Daily Star on Sunday   29,788         30,267      -1.58

Source: ABC January 2008