The newspaper, Scotland on Sunday, is expected to tomorrow celebrate its first year-on-year sales rise in Scotland for over five years.
Tomorrow, the latest audited circulation figures are expected to show the Edinburgh-based broadsheet sold in Scotland an average 48,796 copies during last month, up on 12 months previously, albeit by a very modest 51 copies, but a rise, nevertheless, and counter to recent trends that it, in particular, and the newspaper industry, in general, have recently experienced.
Should the sales rise be confirmed tomorrow, it will have been acheived without price discounting, free gifts or TV advertising.
July saw very strong editorial, including around the massacre of young people in Norway; the death of singer, Amy Winehouse; and the wedding, in Edinburgh, of The Queen's granddaughter, Zara Phillips.
The last year-on-year rise was in February five years ago, coinciding with, among others, a giveaway CD and a Scotland win over England in rugby's Calcutta Cup.
The belief is that the current expected year-on-year has had little to do with the demise, last month, of the News of the World newspaper – closed down in the wake of phone hacking allegations made against some of its senior personnel – and its numerous readers taking their custom elsewhere.
Anticipating the confirmed figures, Ian Stewart, SoS editor, told allmediascotland.com: “We are all absolutely delighted to achieve year-on-year growth for the first time in nearly six years. It is all the more telling because we did not resort to price cutting in the wake of the demise of the News of The World as we didn't see Scotland on Sunday as a natural refuge for NOTW readers. We allowed the paper to stand on its own two feet and believe our sales success reflects our ability to produce a high-quality, multi-section Scottish newspaper that more than holds its own in a very competitive market.”
