ABCs: National Sunday newspapers show slight growth

National Sunday newspapers in the UK showed slight circulation growth as a sector in September, according to the latest figures from the UK Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC).

The "quality" titles posted a 1.71 per cent month-on-month increase in average net circulation to 2,179,171 - though this is down 11.21 per cent from September 2009.

The Observer (5.32 per cent), the Sunday Times (2.4 per cent) and the Sunday Telegraph (0.21) recorded gains - with the Observer posting the largest increase to 325,502, its largest circulation since June. The Sunday Herald was the only Sunday title to show a year-on-year increase in average net circulation however, posting a 3.51 per cent increase on September 2009.

The national Sunday popular sector's average net circulation remained steady at 5,367,238 for September - a slight increase of 0.79 per cent on August's figures.

The Financial Times and the Guardian were the strongest performing daily national titles, posting a 3.63 per cent to 390,228 and 2.21 per cent to 278,129 increase in average net circulation over August respectively.

The Scotsman was the biggest loser in the dailies sector (down 5.86 per cent from August). The "national morning quality" titles fared best posting just an average -0.25 per cent month-on-month decline for their category.

Key figures
The first figure in each category below denotes average net circulation for September 2010. The figure in brackets is the month-on-month percentage change for the average net circulation between August and September and the third figure shows the year-on-year percentage change between September 2009 and September 2010.

Morning papers:
Popular: 5,376,017 (-1.11) -3.7

Mid Market: 2,803,879 (-1.31) -4.23

Quality: 2,094,229 (-0.25) -12.25

Total average: 10,274,125 (-0.99) -5.75

Sunday papers:
Popular: 5,367,238 (0.79) -6.4

Mid Market: 2,853,446 (-0.53) -6.23

Quality: 2,179,171 (+1.71) -11.21

Total average: 10,399,855 (+0.62) -7.41

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