Sales of Scotland’s first pro-independence daily, the National, dropped to 36,000 on Monday, according to unofficial industry estimates.
Newsquest’s new tabloid was launched last week for a five-day trial to test reader enthusiasm, and by Thursday senior executives at the owner of the Herald & Times Group had taken the decision to continue publishing “indefinitely” after sales exceeded expectations.
Early plans for the National looked at a print run of as few as 15,000, but just before launch this was upped to 30,000, and then 60,000, all of which sold out on launch day last Monday.
According to industry estimates, however, sales dipped across the week with Friday the lowest at about 40,000.
This despite the edition being bulked up from 32 to 40 pages on the back of advertiser demand and a big news day following the publication of the report by the Smith commission, which was set up by the prime minister, David Cameron, in the wake of the vote against Scottish independence.
The National’s average daily sale across the first week was about 44,000.
The sales slide has continued into the National’s second week with Monday’s edition selling about 36,000 copies.
The paper also sold about 11,000 digital subscriptions, priced at £1.50 for its first week, but it is not known how many have signed up again this week.
The National is priced at 50p.
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