WITH the exception of The Guardian, The Times and Sunday Times, sales of daily and Sunday newspapers in Scotland were, on average during December, down on twelve months previously.
And according to the ABCs, among the biggest year-on-year fallers – as measured by Average Net Circulation – were the Sunday Mirror (down 15.87 per cent, from 29,673 to 24,964), The People (down 15.21 per cent, from 21,989 to 18,644), the Sunday Mail (down ten per cent, from 460,051 to 414,046), and the Daily Mirror (down 11.53 per cent, from 32,569 to 28,872).
While sales of The Guardian were up by 0.4 per cent (from 15,671 to 15,779), The Times by 1.67 per cent (from 27,018 to 27,470) and The Sunday Times by 4.08 per cent (from 64,645 to 67,280), the rest were down, including the Sunday Herald (from 47,118 to 42,208, down 4910 or 10.42 per cent) and The Scotsman (from 51,704 to 46,809 down 4,895 or 9.47 per cent).
Also among the other big fallers were The Herald (from 66,429 to 60,345, down 6,084 or 9.16 per cent) and The Mail on Sunday (from 112,414 to 101,216, down 11,198 or 9.96 per cent).
While the December average net circulation for the Scottish Sun was 358,507, it had been 389,659 12 months previously. In other words, a year-on-year drop of 31,152 or 7.99 per cent.
For the Daily Record, the December 2008 figure was 330,316 compared to a December 2007 one of 363,329 – ie down 33,013 or 9.09 per cent.
Elsewhere, the comparative Scottish figures are: Daily Star 81,443 in December 2008 versus 88,190 in December 2007 (down 6,747 or 7.65 per cent), Daily Express 72,199 in December 2008 versus 78,317 in December 2007 (down 6,118 or 7.81 per cent), The Daily Mail 114,241 versus 125,213 (down 10,972 or 8.76 per cent), The Daily Telegraph 22,143 versus 23,092 (down 949 or 4.11 per cent), Financial Times 5,170 versus 5,492 (down 322 or 5.86 per cent), The Independent 8,540 versus 8,762 (down 2,222 or 2.53 per cent), Daily Star Sunday 27,729 versus 29,950 (down 2,221 or 7.42 per cent), News of the World 264,503 versus 285,015 (down 29,512 or 7.2 per cent), Sunday Express 41,373 versus 43,437 (down 2064 or 4.75 per cent), Sunday Post 251,828 versus 272,156 (down 20,328 or 7.47 per cent), Independent on Sunday 7,642 versus 7975 (down 333 or 4,18 per cent), The Observer 21,182 versus 21,050 (up 132 or 0.63 per cent), Scotland on Sunday 54,925 versus 59,273 (down 4,348 or 7.34 per cent), The Sunday Telegraph 18,844 versus 20,504 (down 1,660 or 8.1 per cent).
