Sun’s sales lead over Record narrows to below 50,000

THE sales lead of The Scottish Sun over its rival, the Daily Record, has dipped below 50,000 for the first time in three months.

Say the September ABCs, the gap – as measured by Average Net Circulation – between the Scottish Sun and its nearest rival, the Daily Record, was 49,736. In August, it was 53,818; in July, it was 53,124; and in June, it was 50,493.

In September, the Scottish Sun’s average daily sale was 361,244 (compared to 368,097 in August), as opposed to the Daily Record’s 311,508 (compared to 314,279 in August).

Three months ago, the Scottish Sun had celebrated its biggest-ever average sales lead over the Daily Record, insodoing creating – for the first time since it overtook the Record to become Scotland’s biggest-selling daily newspaper – a 50,000-plus divide between the two titles.

Meanwhile, the average for the country’s biggest-selling newspaper, the Sunday Mail, was 380,581. In August, it was 389,475; in July, it 376,905; and in June, it was 377,225.

Average Net Circulation figures include free give-aways.

The other figures, at a glance, are:

Scottish News of the World 305,758 (compared to 315,534 for August), Sunday Post 237,355 (compared to 241,075), Scottish Daily Mail 115,940 (118,110), Scottish Mail on Sunday 96,761 (98,115 ), Scottish Daily Star 88,134 (90,501), Scottish Daily Express 69,802 (72,179), Sunday Times Scotland 68,610 (70,349), The Herald 56,799 (57,932), Scotland on Sunday 56,514 (62,149), The Scotsman 46,501 (49,676), Sunday Herald 42,665 (43,877), Scottish Sunday Express 39,369 (41,457), Scottish Daily Star – Sunday 28,510 (29,918), Scottish Daily Mirror 27,070 (28,082), The Times 26,350 (29,100), Daily Telegraph 23,730 (25,497), Scottish Sunday Mirror 23,447 (24,418), The Observer 21,034 (21,614), Sunday Telegraph 20,011 (21,220),  People 15,500 (17,007), The Guardian 15,452 (16,593, The Independent 7,556 (7,677), Independent on Sunday 6,282 (6,879), and Financial Times 4,458 (4,332).