AGAINST a backdrop of sales in Scotland continuing to drop for national daily newspapers, there was some consolation that their year-on-year declines for December 2010-last month were not quite as severe as they had been for November 2010-November 2011.
And according to the latest set of figures issued by the Audit Bureau of Circulation, in the case of the Scottish Daily Mail, there was even a slight increase: of 2.1 per cent.
And once again, several Sunday newspapers have benefitted from the demise, in July, of the News of the World. This time around, The Sunday Post turned a year-on-year drop of 1.2 per cent (from November 2010 to November 2011) to a 0.6 per cent increase.
The daily figures – issued at midday – concern sales in Scotland between December 2010 and last month and reveal the following:
Daily Mirror – 5.2 per cent drop = from 22,837 on average in December 2010, to 21,641 last month;
Daily Record – 5.3 per drop = from 277,899 on average in December 2010, to 263,251 last month;
Daily Star of Scotland – 9.9 per cent drop = 66,803 to 60,145;
The Scottish Sun – 3.8 per cent drop = 314,897 to 302,823;
Scottish Daily Express – 4.7 per cent drop = 65,768 to 62,638;
Scottish Daily Mail – 2.1 per cent up = 105,193 to 107,390;
Daily Telegraph – 1.3 per cent drop = 18,882 to 18,638;
Financial Times – 4.7 per cent drop = 3,641 to 3,470;
The Herald – 9.9 per cent drop = 51,286 to 46,215;
The Guardian – 1.9 per cent drop = 12,921 to 12,677;
Independent – 16.5 per cent drop = 7,765 to 6,485;
The Scotsman – 6.1 per cent drop = 40,658 to 38,159; and
The Times – six per cent drop = 20,321 to 19,103.
Meanwhile, the Sunday titles’ sales figures in Scotland continued to be a more mixed bag:
Daily Star of Scotland – Sunday – 122.6 per cent up = 25,625 to 57,037;
Sunday Mail – 4.1 per cent up = 338,508 to 352,285;
Sunday Mirror – 70 per cent up = 22,640 to 38,561;
The People – 87.2 per cent up = 12,264 to 22,957;
Scottish Sunday Express – 18.6 per cent up = 35,154 to 41,708;
The Sunday Post – 0.6 per cent up = 215,387 to 216,717;
Scottish Mail on Sunday – 0.02 per cent down = 98,312 to 98,288;
Independent on Sunday – 10.2 per cent up = 6,123 to 6,750;
The Observer – 1.2 per cent down = 16,952 to 16,744;
Scotland on Sunday – 5.7 per cent down = 45,996 to 43,369;
Sunday Herald – 27.6 per cent down = 39,687 to 28,708;
Sunday Telegraph – 3.2 per cent down = 16,864 to 16,328; and
Sunday Times – 9.5 per cent down = 56,884 to 51,455.
