UK newspaper circulations have largely declined across the board year on year but The Financial Times and free titles Metro and The Evening Standard have bucked the trend.
The Sun still boasts the highest circulation at 1.54m although that figure is down 7.2% for the year. The Metro sits at 1.47m, the drop in its distribution figures sitting at just 0.11% in 12 months. The Daily Mail is down 11.13% to 1.3m. The London Evening Standard, a freesheet, increased its distribution by 0.09% to 944k.
Across the board the decline continued: The Times was down 2.37%, The Daily Star -11.61%, The Daily Telegraph -18.4, The Daily Express -7.08 and the i -3.58. although month on month it remained steady.
The Guardian and Observer were relaunched with new tabloid formats halfway through January. While it is too early to learn whether the new formats have affected circulations, The Guardian was down 2.58% to 152k and its sister title dropped 4.82% to 176k. Month on month however, both titles were up less than one percentage point.
The Financial Times was up slightly by 0.35 year on year, the only major paid-for newspaper to buck the trend. Its digital edition was up 9.43% to 6.7k a day. This might be down to its growth strategy, looking to forge loyalty and pin down subscriptions through global events.
The other side of the coin is that digital presences largely continue to grow. For DMG Media it was a mixed bag; while the MailOnline boasted the most daily average unique browsers at 13.7 million, year on year its audience was down 12%. This will be offset slightly by the Metro’s 61% growth of its online platform to 2.5 million.
Elsewhere, Mirror Group was up 6.5% to 10 million and The Sun was up 24% to 52m. Further down the list, the Evening Standard saw a 42% bump to 944k each day.