The obvious default position for newspapers, especially in an election month, was rightwing versus left, as though politics defined everything. But it didn’t – and doesn’t. Look at May’s ABC sales figures and a different battle emerges, one for weekend hegemony: the Saturday Mail and Mail on Sunday versus Mr Murdoch’s twin Buns.
The Mail on Sunday was the biggest sabbath seller at last: nearly 29,000 ahead of a flagging Sun on Sunday. Saturday’s Mail, at an average of 2,289,000, led Saturday’s Sun by 119,000. Add in some statistics from the National Readership Survey showing Mail titles with a monthly print-plus-digital UK reach of 30.3 million and you can see why Rupert may have cause to curse in his cornflakes.
Of course this battle doesn’t disguise generalised decline (7% year-on-year) across print sales. But Geordie Greig at the MoS is allowed his moment – and those who see Fleet Street eventually evolving into a weekend print clash featuring Saturday and Sunday editions alone have a new equation to reckon with.
Whatever paywalls are doing for Rupert’s Times titles, they don’t seem to be helping the reach of his beloved Sun; and politics, too, seems a peripheral factor as one big Tory champion bashes another. Indeed, there look to be a lot of readers who buy their papers irrespective of Cam, Ed, Nick and the whole damn show.
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