Newspaper circulation figures to be kept private as sales crash due to Covid-19
UK publishers will no longer have to make their circulation figures public as the Covid-19 crisis continues to decimate newspaper sales and distribution.
The Audit Bureau of Circulation (ABC), which publishes the official data, today said it will no longer publish its public monthly report, though the figures will still be available to advertisers.
The industry body said the move marked an effort to halt the “negative narrative of circulation decline” during the pandemic.
The UK’s biggest publishers have all suffered sharp falls in circulation over the last two months as footfall has plummeted during the lockdown.
The latest figures, released today, revealed sales of some titles fell as much as 40 per cent last month.
The Financial Times suffered the biggest slump, with circulation dropping 39 per cent to 88,756. The i, which was bought earlier this year by the Daily Mail group, suffered a 38 per cent decline.
The Daily Mail itself dropped 16.5 per cent, while the Guardian and Daily Mirror — owned by Reach — fell 18 per cent.
The most resilient titles proved to be the Sunday titles, though these still suffered double-digit percentage falls.
News UK, which publishes the Times and Sun newspapers, today said its circulation figures would no longer be made public through ABC. Instead, the company said it would focus on total reach across all platforms via Pamco.
“While print remains a vitally important method of distributing our editorial to readers and meeting our advertisers’ needs, it is logical that the way we measure our audiences reflects the way the world works today,” said News UK chief operating officer David Dinsmore.
Telegraph Media Group, which publishes the Telegraph titles, earlier this year withdrew from ABC completely to release its own independently audited figures.
In addition to declining sales, the industry has been hit by a collapse in the advertising market as businesses look to cut costs during the pandemic.
The impact of Covid-19 has been even starker for freesheets that rely on commuters and pull in revenue purely from adverts.
Last month the Evening Standard’s circulation was 423,000, down from more than 700,000 the previous month.
Metro also saw its circulation plummet from 1.3m copies to fewer than 400,000, while City PM has paused its print operation during the pandemic.
Phil Smith, director general of ad industry body ISBA, said he welcomed the changes to the circulation publication.
“These reporting updates will reduce the tendency for circulation to be seen as the only measure of news brands’ health in our multi-platform age, whilst ensuring that the comparability and trustworthiness of ABC data remains available to buyers,” he said.