I see it's been another good month for newspaper sales. Or should I have said DVDs and CDs? There were many month-on-month rises attributable to the promotional goodies. There was some evidence of an overall sales recovery, not least at The Sun, which recorded its fifth successive monthly rise. That's surely down to the 10p price cut in the London area and I imagine News International was hoping to do rather better. Despite the cut, the paper is still not selling quite as many as it did n September 2006.
The Daily Mirror , without a price cut, was up for the third month running, a creditable performance and, just possibly, the sign of it having reached a crucial circulation plateau. The Daily Star, meanwhile, suffered a decrease on the month, but it was the only daily red-top to improve on its year-on-year performance.strong>The Independent managed its best sale for several months. The Times and The Guardian enjoyed month-on-month rises, though both are well down on their position a year ago.
The Daily Telegraph's firm headline figure has to be seen in the context of an increasing reliance on cheap multiple sales to airports and hotels. It relied on more than 89,000 bulks compared to 71,000 in the same month a year ago.
Indeed, a glance at the year-on-year statistics shows how irrelevant the month-on-month figures have become. Almost all titles are well behind compared to last year.
Finally, a word of cheer for the London Evening Standard, a paid-for paper fighting off three freesheets. There has been evidence for some time that it has stopped the rot that set in with the launch of the afternoon freebies. Now comes clear proof that it has a grasp on a core audience. And that's before the Eros card and the revamp kick in.
