Gap again closes in newspaper circulation battle

THE Daily Record was again in upbeat mood on Friday, following the issuing of the latest newspaper circulation figures, the ABCs, which it says shows it is catching up again on its arch rival, The Scottish Sun – the newspaper that relatively recently took its crown as the country’s biggest-selling daily newspaper.

Says publishers, Trinity Mirror, last month’s average daily circulation of the Daily Record, including its free evening edition, was the second, successive catch-up on the Scottish Sun.

In a statement issued on Friday, Trinity Mirror said: “March ABC figures calculate the gap to be down to 10,431 copies – an improvement of 4,630 copies on the previous month.

“Sales in Scotland of the paid-for edition closed the gap on the cut-price 15p Sun by a further 3417 copies compared to February (which closed the gap by 2,547 copies on January). The paid-for gap now stands at 28,247 copies.

“Since the Sun in Scotland moved its price from 10p to 15p in January. the paid-for gap has closed by 5,964 copies.”

Average net circulation figures for March, according to ABC, show a figure for the Scottish Sun of 405,049, compared to 376,802 for the Daily Record. With a figure of 465,460, the Sunday Mail remains the biggest-selling newspaper in Scotland.

The remaining figures are: News of the World (295,147), Sunday Post (287,219), Scottish Daily Mail (127,330), Scottish Mail on Sunday (115,123), Scottish Daily Star (92,515), Scottish Daily Express (77,761), The Herald (70,907), Sunday Times Scotland (69,926), Scotland on Sunday (69,237), and The Scotsman (56,094).

Next up is the Sunday Herald (54,738), followed by the Scottish Sunday Express (51,027), Scottish Daily Mirror (34,714), Scottish Sunday Mirror (31,770), Scottish Daily Star – Sunday (29,491), The Times (27,834), The People (24,516), Daily Telegraph (23,340), The Observer (22,190), Sunday Telegraph (20,414), The Guardian (15,640), Independent (10,243), Independent on Sunday (9,493) and the Financial Times (5,847).