After a little digging around I’ve found the annual average circulations of each UK national daily newspaper from January 2005 to December 2005. To compare and measure the decrease in circulations, I also have the same for 2004. It’s no secret the majority (all but two) have decreased and no doubt will continue to do so.
It’s not the most scientific data analysis in the world and ideally, I would have like to have had previous years so I could track the trend.
Here I’ll list each national, giving the circulations for the year 2005 then 2004 and following with the percentage increase/decrease.
National Morning Popular
The Daily Mirror went from 1,828,938 to 1,727,601 – down 5.54%
The Daily Record went from 487,564 to 462,713 – down 5.10%
The Daily Star went from 890,244 to 847,213 – down 4.83%
The Sun went from 3,332,831 to 3,263,068 – down 2.09%
An average of down 3.65%
National Morning Mid Market
The Daily Express went from 939,134 to 875,358 – down 6.79%
The Daily Mail went from 2,412,261 to 2,373,646 – down 1.60
An average of down 3.06%
National Morning Quality
The Daily Telegraph went from 910,470 to 907,343 – down 0.34%
The Financial Times went from 431,636 to 426,358 – down 1.22%
The Guardian went from 376,301 to 375,269 – down 0.27%
The Herald went from 78,746 to 77,363 – down 1.76%
The Independent went from 259,815 to 260,114 – up 0.12%
The Scotsman went from 68,911 to 67,507 – down 2.04%
The Times went from 657,716 to 685,244 – up 4.19%
An average of up 0.56%
Overall average of circulations
2004 = 12,674,597
2005 = 12,348,796 -
Diff = 325,773 (down 2.57%)
So there you have it. Down by just over 325,000 in one year. That’s more than the population of Sunderland. I’ve been told the regionals are doing even worse? Anyone? Are there any online circulation/readership statistics?
I think PR pros should be tracking these trends and changes with hard facts. In time, convincing clients that a print hit isn’t the be all and end all will be an everyday thing. When I **eventually** get my wiki up at www.prblogger.com/wiki (don’t go there – nothing to see) I plan on using it to file such data. I’ll also be looking for help as I won’t know where to start! 
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Stephen is a communications consultant based out of the UK. You can connect with him on Twitter or check out his LinkedIn profile. | Email Stephen
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Antony
Hi Stephen
The flip-side is also important – to bear in mind how much influence newspapers do still have. They are in decline, but far from dead.
Also, I think that in parallel to print circulation figures we should be able to say what their online readership stats are.
I would argue, for instance, that The Guardian is becoming more influential than ever, given its global inline readership.
I couldn’t work out how to do a trackback – but I put some more thoughts here: http://open.typepad.com/open/2006/02/nationals_influ.html
Stephen Davies
You’re right Antony. They still hold a LOT of influence and to be honest, I never thought to take their online presence into consideration. Although, they’re still figuring how to make money on that one.