The Business End

Other people's business

December ABC figures: it doesn't look good

Sales all down except for Guardian, Telegraph, Financial Times.

By Dominic Ponsford Published 11 January 2013 17:31

Year-on-year sales were down for December. Photograph: Getty Images

The Guardian, FT and Daily Telegraph all ended 2012 on a high note, with small month-on-month circulation increases. But sales of every other national newspaper were down year on year.

Sales of the UK’s top-selling daily The Sun fell by 10 per cent year on year as it competed with cut-price sales from the previous year, while the Daily Mirror kept its rate of decline to half that figure.

Most of the biggest year on year falls in the Sunday market were due to the distorting effect of the closure of the News of the World in July 2011.

Looking at the sales averages for 2012 as a whole, the Daily Mail and the Daily Mirror were among the best-performing titles in relative terms, keeping their print sales declines to 6 per cent and 6.6 per cent respectively.

UK national newspaper sales for December 2012 (source ABC)

National dailies	Average sale	Month/Month	Year/Year	bulks
Daily Mirror	1,034,641	-0.99	-5.27	-
Daily Record	250,096	-1.39	-8.89	1,822
Daily Star	540,548	-3.47	-12.32	-
The Sun	2,277,809	-3.55	-10.00	-
Daily Express	529,096	-1.52	-11.29	-
Daily Mail	1,844,569	-1.44	-7.54	91,361
The Daily Telegraph	547,465	0.19	-6.74	-
Financial Times	286,401	1.60	-14.19	29,815
The Guardian	204,222	0.31	-11.25	-
i	291,311	-3.66	31.39	65,239
The Independent	78,082	-1.25	-34.69	18,371
The Scotsman	32,463	-0.83	-16.00	2,368
The Times	396,041	-0.82	-3.18	17,100
Racing Post	45,372	-1.70	-9.34	63