National newspaper ABCs – May 2015: Indy makes gains as the Sun drops almost 50,000

Perhaps as a result of the election, May was a reasonably stable month for national newspapers – with a rare sight of (very modest) growth in the Sunday market. Here are Newsline’s key take-outs.

Daily titles

In the quality market only the Financial Times recorded any period-on-period sales drop, down only -0.9%.

The Daily Telegraph remained entirely static, whilst the Guardian and the i were both up a modest 1.5%.

The best performing title was The Independent, up 2.2%, selling an extra 1,290 copies.

Year-on-year, almost every title was down – with the Telegraph worst hit recording a -5.3% dip. Meanwhile, The Times managed to buck the negative trend and recorded a 1.1% rise in sales.

In the mid market, a -1.3% period decline lost the Daily Express 5,500 average daily sales, while a 1.6% rise gave the Daily Mail an extra 26,750.

It was not looking so good in the popular market, however, with every title recording a period-on-period decline. The Sun was hardest hit, dropping -2.6% and losing 48,460 readers.

Overall, the daily market was down -0.5% over the month and -7.8% over the year.

London Free Press

After declines in April, the London free press recorded modest growth, with City A.M. up just 0.1%, period-on-period, the Evening Standard up 1.9% and Metro up 0.5%. The market was up 1.2% overall.

In terms of yearly declines, City A.M. was the only title to record any notable change, down -7.6%.

Sunday titles

Things were more interesting in the Sunday market in May, with a 0.5% period-on-period increase recorded across the entire market – although, year on year, there was a -9.1% drop in total newspaper circulations (more than 665,000).

In the quality market the Observer was up a healthy 3.3% in May, whilst both the Independent on Sunday and the Sunday Telegraph were up 2.7%.

Only the Sunday Times recorded a drop in circulation – down -1.9% and shedding more than 15,000 copies.

In the mid-market the Mail on Sunday was also up a healthy 3.5%, shifting an extra 50,000 copies whilst it rivals saw small declines.

The popular market didn’t have much to celebrate, however. Every title recorded a small decline, with both the Sunday People and the Sunday Mail performing worst with -1.7% drops in circulation.