Sun records lowest sale in 30 years


Jemima Kiss
Friday November 10, 2006
MediaGuardian.co.uk

The Sun's circulation has dropped to its lowest level since January 1974, according to the latest figures from the Audit Bureau of Circulations.
Though still the most widely read UK daily newspaper, selling around 750,000 more copies than the Daily Mail, the Sun's circulation fell to just over 3.1m in October. The paper has seen a year-on-year decrease of 3.63%, down from 3.2m in October 2005.

A Certificate 18 DVD collection promotion at the end of October failed to stem the newspaper's 3.4% circulation drop from September.

The Daily Mirror's exclusive interview with Top Gear presenter Richard Hammond failed to slow its long-term drop in circulation, which fell 2.04 % from September to October 2006, to 1.6m copies. The Mirror's circulation has dropped by around 5% since October 2005.

For the Daily Star, the ABC figures are worse, with circulation dropping 6% from October 2005, to 770,000. The Daily Record's circulation fell by 34,000 from this time last year, a decline of 7.53 %, to 420,054.

The UK's mid-market daily newspapers faired slightly better, with the Daily Express dropping by 2.73% from October 2005, to 788,719.

The Daily Mail's circulation fell by 2.49 % from September to October to 2.35 million, though its year-on-year average was the only positive in today's daily tabloid results - a slight rise of 0.18%.

The News of the World's circulation has dropped by more than 300,000 copies in the past year, according to the latest Audit Bureau of Circulation figures.
News International's Sunday red-top market leader had a circulation of 3.4m last month, compared with 3.7m in October 2005, a drop of 8.7%. Circulation fell by 1.92% from September.

The Sunday Mirror's circulation dropped by 4.38% from September to just under 1.4m, and its year-on-year circulation fell by 5.62 %.

The People saw a 12.8% drop in circulation since October 2005, from 905,000 copies to under 790,000.

The Sunday Sport's year-on-year figures continue to plummet, with the title recording a 29.75% decline from 148,385 in October 2005 to 104,000 copies last month.

Sunday newspapers saw an overall 1.28% drop in combined year-on-year circulation, partly stemmed by a 4.96% increase in the Mail on Sunday's circulation to more than 2.4m copies.

The Mail on Sunday's circulation rose by 2.54% from September to October this year, equivalent to around 60,000 copies.

The Sunday Express saw a 4.47% drop to 792,003 from October 2005.

Surely, even the name "news"paper is a bit of a misnomer? They have YESTERDAY'S news, which is really history. Anyone who wants news consults the internet.

Newspapers just give someone's slant on the news - their perspective.

I still buy papers at the weekend - but treat them more as magazines than news sources.

For more than 20 years I've relied on TV text based news (BBC Teletext or ITV) simply because I don't want ot pay for someone else's opinion, and they can't really spin much in 200 words

I read this every morning, as it is a faster news service, I agree with with MM, I treat weekend papers as magazines as well.