It’s now been almost six weeks since the dramatic implosion of the News of the World following the fallout of the phone hacking scandal. However it’s only now, with the release of July’s ABC figures, that the impact of the demise of Sunday’s largest selling newspaper can be properly gauged. With 2.7m potential readers up for grabs, the challengers have launched a frantic flurry of price cuts and promotions but who has succeeded in wooing the orphaned NotW readers?
Unsurprisingly, the lion’s share stuck to what they knew and switched to an alternative tabloid. The remaining Sunday red tops were rejuvenated with an average net circulation increase of 66% last month. The Daily Star on Sunday fared the best with an additional 400,000 additional copy sales in the three weeks following the NotW’s closure – a 130% period-on-period (PoP) increase; its highest circulation since 2002. (Elsewhere, however, it’s daily equivalent had the biggest year-on-year (YoY) decline in July, down 16%.) Other tabloid stablemates that profited from the market shake up were the Sunday Mirror and The People, up 64% and 70% PoP respectively.
While most didn’t stray too far from the tabloid sector, some more adventurous readers braved mid-market territory with the circulations of the Sunday Express up 14% and the Mail on Sunday up 15%. With a circulation now at 2,255,399, MoS is still Britain’s biggest selling Sunday title by a significant margin. This has no doubt been helped by the recent launch of the Mail Rewards Club, a weekend-centric loyalty scheme offering free vouchers and nice freebies, that the Mail has been promoting.
At the top end of the market, there were also strong performances for some of the quality Sundays – no doubt a combination of a few ex-NotW readers experimenting, coupled with a general spike in news interest to follow the hacking scandal itself.
Bucking the upward trend though was The Sunday Times, which limped out of the ABCs with a 1% decrease, the only Sunday title that failed to gain new readers during the period and the first it has dropped below 1m since 1962, as readers question whether they want to support any News International title at all. Conversely, the Sun readers remained loyal as it continued to be the biggest daily publication with a circulation of 2.8m.
All in all, with so many switching allegiances and trying new titles, there were some who clearly could not plug the gaping hole left by the NotW in their lives. The overall Sunday market is down 8.6% PoP. Is there a future home for them? Or have they simply turned their back on Sunday newspapers? And will those who have picked up a different paper stick around once the price reductions and freebies disappear? What’s Hot will keep you informed as and when this becomes clear.
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