November 2014 ABC Newspaper Circulation

JTMan

Conor has his usual great analysis on iLevel.ie here of the UK newspaper sales in Ireland.

• Mirror down 15% YoY.
• Daily Record down 35% YoY.
• Daily Star Sunday down 17% YoY.
• The People down 15% YoY.
• Sunday Times down 9% YoY.
• Morning newspaper market down 13% YoY. Annual declines are accelerating.
• Sunday newspaper market down 9% YoY.

Roy of Media Guardian has his analysis here of UK newspaper sales in the UK. Press Gazette have their analysis here.

• Daily Star down 14% YoY.
• Guardian down 11% YoY.
• The Times up 1% YoY.
• Daily Star Sunday down 14% YoY.
• Independent down 10% YoY.

That sales fall is mirrored at the Sunday titles too, and together those figures illustrate the now regular pattern of overall newsprint decline.

The rate of decrease is probably greater than five years ago, but not much more. It is proving to be a slow death and termination is still a way off.

But none of this is in the least bit unexpected. It is how things are and how things will be for several years to come. At some point, I guess there will be a cliff fall. For now though the printing presses continue to turn

IRE60

I'd agree with Roy that its only a matter of time before something snaps - unfortunately.
As remarked in the yarn, the Daily Star figure is worrying (as is the overall trend in the market*) and even more so is the seemingly lack of interest in the title by IN&M.
This manifests itself in these ways:
a) the recent (currently aborted) merger of the editorial of the Sunday World and Herald - when the Star would have been a better fit in strategic terms - if their owners saw a future in the title
b) the complete lack of promotion of the paper - either in house promotions or external advertising/marketing.
C) the failed experiment of the Herald moving to a completely overcrowded morning slot in the vain hope that it would pick up sales if the Daily Star collapsed.

I still harbor the conspiracy theory that when the licence to publish the Star expires - which I think is some time in early 2015 - IN&M will be reticent to renew it and perhaps even the brand owner, Northern Shell, might equally have cold feet about the marriage. It could spell the demise of the brand.

In the yarn I have the Overall market down 3% year on year - which was wishful thinking and wrong (Thanks Mr T). Its corrected now to -10% - the true figure.

C

IRE60

For some reason these wouldn't upload at the last posting.
The 'change' is the rate of change of the various newspaper sales.
The 'herald' tracks the monthly sales of the herald before and after the morning edition.
Finally an interesting one - the day sales showing the M to F sales of the three tabloids and their saturday sales.
It clearly shows that The Sun is the outright winner on Saturday and has managed to prevent the same losses seen by the other two tabloids on a Saturday.

JTMan

Based on prior years, Independent Star should publish their accounts in late December. This should give us a better insight as to their performance. Sales revenues are clearly on a rapid descent.

If I were Richard Desmond, I would let the Irish Daily Star continue for as long as it is paying Northern & Shell a dividend. The last set of accounts still pointed towards a small dividend. Not that it will last for long.

N&S have been the most aggressive in terms of cuts in the UK newspaper industry. Staff cuts at the Express newspapers have been savage, sales are nose diving. Richard is not afraid to make bold cuts and would probably see letting the Irish Daily Star go as being a small decision.

The Irish Daily Star, clearly falls in the 'low hanging fruit' category with the Landmark Media titles, the low selling UK imports and some of the regionals.

IRE60

Interesting development - in terms of the 'thinking' behind Desmond and maybe might make him more inward looking.

http://www.theguardian.com/media/2014/dec/12/richard-desmond-donation-ukip-nigel-farage