Sales gap widens between rivals

THE average sales gap between the best-selling daily newspaper in Scotland and its closest rival widened slightly last month, with The Scottish Sun creating a gap of 32,420 on the Daily Record, as opposed to 25,493, on average, during April.

According to the latest ABC figures, last month’s average sale for The Scottish Sun was 402,706 versus the Record’s 370,286. The figures don’t include the Record’s free PM editions.

In April, the paid-for morning edition of the Daily Record recorded sales in Scotland alone (it enjoys sales of just over 30,000 outside Scotland) of 373,151, compared to The Scottish Sun’s figure of 398,644.

In a statement, The Scottish Sun said: “Despite a price increase from 10p to 15p, Monday to Friday, the Scottish Sun actually increased sales year-on-year by an average of 7833 copies per day. At the same time, the Record’s sale fell by nine per cent to 370,286 – a loss of 36,693 readers a day.”

Added Scottish Sun editor, David Dinsmore: “It’s been another fantastic month for The Scottish Sun. Our sales are bang on target and we’re delighted with progress. We’ve had some great stories over the past few weeks and we’re one of the few papers in the country which is actually putting on sale.”

Yesterday, Spike reported average sales of The Daily Telegraph in Scotland passing those of The Times for the first time in years, perhaps ever: 28,133 versus 28,006.

As usual, the Sunday Mail is Scotland’s biggest-selling newspaper. Last month, it averaged 464,918 sales, as opposed to 468,459 in April.

The other figures were as follows: News of the World 370,286 (compared to 291,574 in April), Sunday Post 295,331 (compared to 281,901), Scottish Daily Mail 123,130 (124,689), Scottish Mail on Sunday 113,600 (120,472), Scottish Daily Star 93,346 (91,329), Scottish Daily Express 78,504 (77,724), Sunday Times Scotland 72,255 (69,701), The Herald 71,262 (69,328), Scotland on Sunday 67,881 (66,066), The Scotsman 57,079 (54,179), Sunday Herald 55,668 (54,479), Scottish Sunday Express 47,881 (48,665), Scottish Mirror 34,928 (34,700), Scottish Sunday Mirror 31,775 (33,480),