Another month of across-the-board year-on-year sales drops for Scots newspapers

WITH the exception, just like last month, of the i newspaper, it was once again a case of across-the-board year-on-year falls for newspaper sales figures in Scotland.

Says the Audit Bureau of Circulation, the average sales in Scotland for daily and Sunday newspapers were uniformly down between October last year and last month.

While several newspapers registered year-on-years sales drops in Scotland by double-digital percentages, many others were more modest, single-digital falls: Independent on Sunday, Sunday Telegraph, Sunday Times, The Observer, Daily Record, The Times, Daily Telegraph, Daily Mirror, Scottish Daily Mail and The Scottish Sun.

Elsewhere, The Scottish Sun on Sunday has no year-on-year figure, having been launched less than 12 months ago. Its October average was 208,688.

Meanwhile, there are no longer monthly ABCs for either The Herald or the Sunday Herald following a decision in August for the papers to be part of the twice-yearly regional newspapers sales survey.

In summary, the daily newspapers figures – issued at midday – concern sales in Scotland between October 2011 and last month and reveal the following:

Daily Mirror – 8.2 per cent drop = from 22,805 on average in October 2011, to 20,928 last month;

Daily Record – 8.7 per drop = from 267,075 on average in October 2011, to 243,726 last month;

Daily Star of Scotland – 14.1 per cent drop = 63,241 to 54,320;

The Scottish Sun – 9.6 cent drop = 314,822 to 284,298;

Scottish Daily Express – 11.9 per cent drop = 63,601 to 56,028;

Scottish Daily Mail – 4.9 per cent drop = 108,047 to 102,774;

Daily Telegraph – 5.6 per cent drop = 20,416  to 19,265;

Financial Times – 18.9 per cent drop = 3,461 to 2,808;

The Guardian – 13.1 per cent drop = 12,936 to 11,243;

i – 58.1 per cent up = 12,545 to 19,836;

Independent – 52.3 per cent drop = 7,276 to 3,470;

The Scotsman – 14.8 per cent drop = 38,289 to 32,637; and

The Times – 1.2 per cent drop = 19,042 to 18,814.

Meanwhile, the Sunday titles’ sales figures in Scotland were as follows:

Daily Star of Scotland – Sunday – 43.8 per cent down = 59,325 to 33,335;

Sunday Mail – 22.6 per cent down = 364,090 to 281,688;

Sunday Mirror – 44.8 per cent down = 39,882 to 22,023;

The People – 52.1 per cent down = 24,415 to 11,700;

Scottish Sunday Express – 22 per cent down = 43,992 to 34,292;

The Sunday Post – 18.7 per cent drop = 222,522 to 180,814;

Scottish Mail on Sunday – 13 per cent down = 103,908 to 90,410;

Independent on Sunday – 2.2 per cent down = 6,930 to 6,775;

The Observer – 9.8 per cent down = 17,130 to 15,450;

Scotland on Sunday – 17.7 per cent down = 46,214 to 38,030;

Sunday Telegraph – 3.6 cent down = 17,628 to 16,984; and

Sunday Times – 7.5 per cent down = 52,838 to 48,871.