Mail on Sunday sales fall back below 2m after second bad month

The Mail on Sunday dipped back below an average two million sales in September, suffering a significant circulation drop for the second month in a row after a boost from the closure of the News of the World in June.

According to the latest Audit Bureau of Circulation figures, sales of the Sunday title fell 5.7 per cent in September to 1,979,701, a loss of around 120,000 copies, after dropping by 150,000 copies in August.

The two circulation drops see the title return to close to average sales prior to the boost from News of the World readers, and only 0.5 per cent up year-on-year.

Among the other Sunday mid-market titles, the Sunday Express performed significantly better with a 21.4 per cent rise, and was the only Sunday national title to see a monthly increase, with a 0.4 per cent rise.

Despite September bringing the first monthly decline in sales for Sunday tabloids following the closure of the News of the World, with an average 4.3 per cent monthly dip for the Daily Sunday, Sunday Mirror, People and Sunday Mail, sales of all four titles were substantially up on the previous year.

The Daily Star Sunday, which saw the worst monthly decline with a 5.6 per cent drop, had the biggest year-on-year rise, with sales up 89.3 per cent to 703,319. The Sunday Mirror saw a 63.9 per cent year-on-year boost, and sales at it's stablemate the People were up 57.6% on last year to 839,182.

The Daily Star suffered the largest year-on-year drop among daily titles, with sales down 21.2 per cent to 681,268.

The Guardian was the second-worst performer among dailies, having removed its foreign editions from audited sales, with a 16.4 year-on-year per cent drop to 232,566.

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