The news frenzy surrounding Jeremy Corbyn’s surprise ascension to Labour leader fuelled solid sales for almost all national quality newspapers in September.
Reader interest in the rise of Corbyn, who used his first Labour conference speech to mock some of the more ludicrous coverage about him, was one factor that helped all titles in the national quality market, except the Daily Telegraph (-0.5%), boost sales month-on-month in September.
There were circulation increases for the Times (+0.02%), Independent (+1.73%), the Guardian (+1.02%), Financial Times (+2.91%) and the i (+0.5%).
Despite Corbynmania proving fertile ground for news stories across the newspaper industry, tabloid titles and the mid-market Daily Mail and Daily Express all failed to boost sales from their coverage.
It would also appear that Lord Ashcroft’s explosive biography of David Cameron, which propelled “piggate” to the top of the news agenda, failed to provide major sales boosts when it broke late in the month.
There were sales declines across the board, including the Sun (-3.52%), Daily Star (-3.22%), Daily Express (-2.88%), Sun on Sunday (-2.84%) and Daily Star Sunday (-4.15%).
