How do I explain the amazing increase in the sale of the Daily Star Sunday? Answer: I can't. In March this year it was selling 375,835 copies. Last month it sold 533,248. That's an addition in six months of 157,000 sales, amounting to a 42% rise.
Where could these new Star readers be coming from? Though its closest rival is The People it has put on an extra 11,000 sales since March. The Sunday Mirror has also managed to add circulation over the past six months, up by 46,000. Similarly, the News of the World has added 44,000 sales.
This suggests, does it not, that the Sunday red-top market is in the process of reversing the lengthy downward trend, with the four titles totalling 6,052,565 sales last month compared to 5,795,227 in March, an increase of more than 4%. In the context of the current market, that may be significant.
A March-August sales comparison of the The Sun, Daily Mirror and Daily Star reveals a similar story. All three are doing better than six months ago. These figures appear to make mincemeat of this commentator's long-held view that the red-tops have fallen out of favour forever with their target readership.
