National Press Round-Up For May
Quality Dailies and Sundays: The downward slide in circulation continues for the quality dailies, with the latest May ABC figures showing decreases against the previous month and against May 1990. Year on year the Guardian has lost 1.4%, the Times 7.9% and the Independent 8.1%. Figures for the FT and Daily Telegraph have been delayed due to voucher promotions.
The Sundays look rather better year on year, especially the Independent On Sunday which increases circulation by 14.1% to 371,000. The Sunday Times gains 0.3% and the Observer 2.4% against May 1990, but for all the titles the month by month trend in 1991 is downward:
| May % Ch | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan’91 | Apr’91 | May’91 | Against | ||
| ‘000 | ‘000 | ‘000 | Apr | Jan | |
| Observer | 618 | 558 | 554 | -0.7 | -10.4 |
| S.Times | 1206 | 1193 | 1143 | -4.2 | -5.2 |
| I.O.S. | 406 | 377 | 371 | -1.6 | -8.6 |
Figures are not yet available for the Sunday Telegraph due to a voucher promotion.
Falling circulations are mirrored in the NRS readership figures which were released at the beginning of May. The October’90 to March’91 figures for the qualities show decreases in readership of over 7% on the same period last year, except the Daily Telegraph (-3.1) The Times suffered the worst, losing 18.6% to 1042,000, giving it 59,000 less readers than its nearest rival,The Independent;a reversal of fortunes from the previous year.
Whilst losing income on copy sales, the recession continues to hit ad revenue. Average weekly pagination figures from MEAL for May 1991 against May 1990 show the percentage of classified ad pages in the quality press decreasing for all titles except the Sunday Times (+2%). The percentage of display advertising remains fairly static with the Daily Telegraph, FT and Observer recording no change at all:
% PERCENTAGE CHANGE MAY ’90/MAY’91
| Display | Classified | Total Pages | |
|---|---|---|---|
| D.Tel | n/c | -4 | -8 |
| F.T. | n/c | -1 | -3 |
| Guard | 3 | -7 | -9 |
| Times | -1 | -1 | -17 |
| Indpt | 4 | -1 | -1 |
| Obsvr | n/c | -2 | -1 |
| S.Tel | -6 | n/c | 10 |
| S.Tms | 2 | 2 | -31 |
| IOS: | |||
| Main | 1 | n/a | 11 |
| Busn | -4 | -4 | -24 |
| Revw | 4 | -2 | -6 |
Mid-Market Dailies And Sundays: A more optimistic picture is painted by the circulation, readership and pagination figures for mid-market national newspapers.
May’91 ABCs show increases year on year for the Daily Express (+1%), Daily Mail (+2.7%),Sunday Express (+5.4%) and Mail On Sunday (+0.6%). Only Today is suffering,with a significant slide from 571,000 to 471,000 (-17.5%).
October’90 to March’91 NRS figures show year on year increases for the Daily Mail (+7.8%) and Mail On Sunday (+3.8), but declines for the other mid-market titles.
The Sunday Express and Today show a fall in the number of classified ad pages against May 1990, although the Daily Mail clearly had a less encouraging month for display ads(-7%):
% PERCENTAGE CHANGE MAY’90/MAY’91
| Display | Classified | Total Pages | |
|---|---|---|---|
| D.Exp | n/c | 1 | 9 |
| D.Mai | -7 | 1 | 9 |
| S.Exp | n/c | -1 | n/c |
| M.O.S | -1 | n/c | 7 |
| Today | 1 | -1 | -9 |
Popular Sundays and Dailies: There are no increases in ABCs for the popular daily and Sunday newspapers. Year on year they have all lost more than 2% circulation and Sunday Sport takes a tumble of 14%.
The readership figures October to March 90/91, show a 5% increase for the Daily Star and a 4% increase for the News Of The World, with all the others in decline.
Pagination figures show an increase in overall size for the Star, Sun and News Of the World (the opposite trend is true of the quality sector).
The Daily Mirror suffers most year on year, with 28% of its pages accounting for display advertising, against an average of 42% in May 1990. Only the News Of The World shows an increase in classified advertising, up 1%.
% PERCENTAGE CHANGE MAY’90/MAY’91
| Display | Classified | Total Pages | |
|---|---|---|---|
| D.Mir | -14 | -1 | 27 |
| Star | -1 | -1 | 12 |
| Sun | 1 | -1 | 15 |
| N.O.W | -3 | 1 | 2 |
| S.Mir | -4 | n/c | -2 |
| Peop. | -5 | -2 | -6 |
General News: With such an obviously depressed market it is not surprising to find some newspapers ringing the changes in an attempt to improve their outlook.
Of the quality newspapers, the Independent On Sunday has suffered staff losses following the decision to merge its news operation in to that of its daily parent. This culminated in the resignation of its editor (News 28/5).
The Sunday Times is also rationalising with the suspension of its London supplement from June 9th (News 22/5).
The Sunday Express has a new look from 23rd June following the appointment of a new editor, Eve Pollard (News 14/5). Bridget Rowe, ex TV Times editor, takes over as editor of the Sunday Mirror.
The Mail On Sunday has reshuffled its ad sales staff (News 13/6) and the group has appointed Sally de la Bedoyere as Display Sales Controller across all titles.
The Guardian, in an attempt to boost its Saturday circulation, launched a regionalised entertainment guide on May 4th, as a tabloid insert in its Weekend section for areas around the M25.
The general marketing initiative from the NPA, mentioned in last month’s round – up, has actually got off the ground. £225,000 has been pledged by the national newspapers to fund the initiative in an attempt to pull in more advertising through concerted promotional campaigns on behalf of the industry as a whole.