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I'm a journalist, ex-national papers, now working in what we call "new" media.
ABC

Here's the latest newspaper ABC circulation figures, as reported in Media Guardian. The accompanying story is headlined "Sales of all quality dailies down", a statement clearly borne out by the figures in the table, which shows, inter alia, the FT down 1.76 per cent month on month.

Yet here's Press Gazette's take on the ABC figures, as far as they affect the Financial Times - circulation up for the sixth consecutive month, apparently. The story also has the Daily Telegraph posting a 0.31 per cent decline month on month, while the Guardian's figures show it up 0.29 per cent.

I've noticed this sort of discrepancy before - the Independent media section seems to publish different figures from Media Guardian. I guess they have to do with the way bulks are counted or something of that sort. I suspect also that the FT was on to the phone to Press Gazette as soon as the ABCs came out, putting its positive spin on the figures.

Anyhow, whichever version you choose to believe, the overall picture for national papers is bleak. Circulation declines show no signs of levelling off: on the contrary, they are falling more steeply and quickly with each passing month.

1 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well spotted. We goofed.

FT is down -2.01 per cent year-on-year and -1.76 per cent month-on-month.

Daily Telegraph is up 0.29 per cent month on month but down -0.14 year-on-year.

Guardian is down -2.14 per cent year-on-year and up 0.09 per cent month-on month.

A correction is about to be posted.