The Daily Mail, seemingly impervious to the circulation difficulties suffered by its rivals, has now succumbed to the downward trend affecting all national newspaper sales. For several months it has done its best to conceal the truth, but it can no longer deny that it is in trouble. The single figure that stands out in today's release of the ABC statistics is the 4.08% drop in the Daily Mail's February sale compared to February a year ago.
That should be seen in the context of the fact that it launched an Irish edition last February. It also boosted its sale that month with a couple of blockbuster DVDs. That said, there are other pointers to the Mail's difficulties in maintaining its former circulation success. Its bulk sale in February reached 119,000 for a start. It also used price cuts in the final week of the month, in the north of Ireland and Scotland. So the underlying loss is somewhat greater than it appears.
To get a better grasp of reality, consider this comparison. Last month the Mail sold 1,834,022 copies at full rate. In February 2006, it sold 2,165,370. That's a loss of more than 330,000 full-price sales in a year, a decrease of 15.3%. Now, by any standards, that's a huge decline. For the Mail, having enjoyed such a lengthy upward trajectory, it is an embarrassing reversal of fortunes. Its problems aren't of the order of many other titles, of course, but it does signify a softening of its sale that is unprecedented in its recent history.
It also helps to explain why it decided to discount its Saturday issue a couple of weeks ago, implying that it was not, after all, targeting The Sun, but trying to stop its own sales rot. It suggests, does it not, that its first nationwide price cut may not be its last? So the paper that has long scorned the price war has finally been lured on to the Murdoch battlefield.
This situation has, of course, not crept up on the Mail. Its owners and managers, including editor-in-chief Paul Dacre, could see the way the wind was blowing ages ago. That was obviously the reason for the online investment which has resulted in a dramatic improvement to its website and will surely mean an even better net service in future.
Interestingly, the Mail on Sunday has not suffered from a similar decline. Its full-rate sale has held up well, it has not increased its reliance on bulk sales and its year-on-year headline sale has slipped by less than 1%. This compares very favourably indeed with the Sunday Times, which lost a further 43,000 copies last month and recorded its worst year-on-year fall, of 9.19%, for many years. Indeed, the market for serious Sunday papers has suddenly got into reverse with an overall drop of 7.07%.
The other really significant falls have occurred at the Telegraph titles. The daily's dive below 900,000 is bad enough. In fact, it is in far worse trouble than that. It is relying on bulk sales of more than 90,000, so it is really selling only 800,000 copies a day. Meanwhile, its Sunday stablemate has also required extra bulks to conceal its disastrous underlying fall towards 600,000.
On the other hand, as we all know, the Daily Telegraph is doing well with its online enterprises. Roll on the day when I can report properly on the true state of affairs by showing the multi-media audiences for papers.
