12. 03. 2013

Guardian slips below 200,000 sales in tough month for dailies

London, March 12, 2013. (Guardian) - The Guardian slipped below 200,000 average daily sales for the first time in February, when the Lebedevs' 20p i was the only national daily title to report a month-on-month circulation rise.

Sales of the Guardian News & Media title dropped 5.31% month on month to 193,586, according to the latest Audit Bureau of Circulations report released on Friday.

The Guardian, which raised its weekday cover price by 20p to £1.40 in January, has shed 10.37% of its circulation since February 2012.

February's circulation decline came after three months of sales increases.

A GNM spokeswoman said: "The Guardian continues to perform well in an increasingly challenging market. Before February, the Guardian was the only quality news title to see an increase in newspaper sales for three months in a row, despite a price rise, and February's performance remains ahead of projections for the year.

"The Guardian is a growing global brand with the world's fourth-most popular news website and the UK's No 1 quality newspaper mobile site. We are seeing record digital traffic on every single measure and our journalism is being read by more people than ever before."

All the other national dailies bar i - closing in on an average daily sale of 300,000 - saw circulation slide in February, a shorter month that includes a half-term holiday that tends to have an adverse effect on sales.

i once again outperformed its rivals, with average daily sales up 1.45% month on month, to 298,206 in February. The title has boosted its circulation by 12.77% since February 2012.

The paper's headline circulation figure included 64,567 bulks - copies sold to airlines, rail companies, hotels and gyms for a nominal fee and given free to the public.

There was little to cheer about elsewhere in the daily market. The Sun was the second biggest faller month on month following a circulation boost in January, when publisher News International launched a TV ad campaign promoting both its daily tabloid and the Sunday edition.

In February the Sun had an average daily circulation of 2,281,990, down 5.30% on the previous month and a fall of 11.63% on February 2012.

The next biggest faller among the dailies was the Daily Telegraph, which shed 2.66% of its circulation month on month, down to 541,036 - a 6.52% fall on the previous year.