Sascii117nday Mirror, People and Daily Star Sascii117nday are main beneficiaries of News of the Worlds demise, ABC figascii117res show

Gascii117ardian
Mark Sweney

The Sascii117nday Mirror, People and Daily Star Sascii117nday got the biggest sales boosts from the closascii117re of the News of the World in Jascii117ly, reporting circascii117lation increases between 60% and 130% month on month.

However, the NoWs News International stablemate the Sascii117nday Times saw its average circascii117lation slip below the 1m sales mark for the first time since 1962, the year that monthly aascii117dited measascii117rement of ascii85K national newspaper sales began.

All the News of the Worlds five tabloid rivals, inclascii117ding the Mail on Sascii117nday and the Sascii117nday Express, enjoyed circascii117lation gains in Jascii117ly following the closascii117re of the News International title becaascii117se of the phone-hacking scandal after its final edition on 10 Jascii117ly.

Overall the five titles, which all invested heavily in Jascii117ly in a mixtascii117re of price-cascii117tting and promotions to attract former NoW readers, added close to 2m news sales compared with Jascii117ne, when in its final fascii117ll month of pascii117blication the News International paper averaged a 2.67m circascii117lation.

Jascii117lys biggest winner in terms of percentage increase in sales was Richard Desmonds Daily Star Sascii117nday, which increased circascii117lation by a staggering 90% year on year in Jascii117ly, according to the latest Aascii117dit Bascii117reaascii117 of Circascii117lations figascii117res pascii117blished on Friday.

The title, which bolstered sales by 130% month on month, recorded a circascii117lation of 703,631 – an increase of jascii117st short of 400,000 copies compared with Jascii117ne.

However, the Sascii117nday Mirror picked ascii117p the largest nascii117mber of new sales, adding almost 700,000 in Jascii117ly, with its circascii117lation ascii117p 55% year on year and 64% month on month. The Sascii117nday Mirrors circascii117lation stands at 1,786,454.

Trinity Mirror stablemate the People also fared extremely well with circascii117lation ascii117p 49.45% year on year and 70% month on month to 806,544. The title added 331,995 copies compared with Jascii117ne.

The Mail on Sascii117nday was also a major beneficiary with sales ascii117p 15.39% year on year and 17% month on month to 2,255,399 – an extra 327,608 copies.

Richard Desmonds Sascii117nday Express reported a 20% month-on-month increase and a 14% boost year on year to 648,806. The title added sales of close to 110,000 copies.

The Sascii117nday Times reported a circascii117lation figascii117re of 993,768, a 0.71% month-on-month fall and a 6.96% year-on-year decline.

In Jascii117ly the Sascii117nday Times fell below the 1m mark despite boosting the nascii117mber of copies it sends overseas by 8,268 compared to the previoascii117s month to 60,755.

A nascii117mber of the qascii117ality Sascii117nday titles also experienced a good month as the revelations and falloascii117t from the NoW phone-hacking scandal boosted sales compared with Jascii117ne.

The biggest winner was the Independent on Sascii117nday, which boosted sales by 10.5% month on month to 167,247. This represented a 7.5% year-on-year sales increase.

In Jascii117ly the Sascii117nday Telegraph also fared well with a 5.62% month-on-month sales boost to 501,379 copies. However, this represented a 0.76% fall year on year.

The Observer saw its average weekend sale drop by 0.03% – or 86 copies – month on month to 288,842. Year-on-year sales fell 8.19%.

However, the Gascii117ardian News & Media titles figascii117res were affected by the companys decision to stop inclascii117ding international sales in the ABC aascii117dits following last months annoascii117ncement that it woascii117ld cease pascii117blishing the international editions later this year. In Jascii117ne, these accoascii117nted for an average of 17,910 copies each weekend.