SCOTTISH TABLOIDS & THE MILLION UNSOLD COPIES

The decline and fall in circulation levels at the Scottish newspapers is showing no sign of slowing down.

In October 2014 the Daily Record endured the humiliation of falling below the 200,000 mark for the average number  of copies sold per day during that month.

Now one year later and they have reported a loss of an additional 20,126 people who are no longer buying their newspaper.

Here are the exact figures:

The Scottish editions of English red-tops aren’t doing much better.

The Scottish Sun has lost 18,257 customers – people prepared to buy their newspaper, in a year on year comparison with last October. They have lost  7.8 per cent  of their circulation going from 233,026 to 214,769.

So over the two main red-tops the year on year decline is 38,383 fewer copies sold every day, or if you look at in in terms of the entire month that equated to 1,036,341 fewer copies of Daily Record/ Scottish Sun sold in October 2015 compared to October 2014.

That is a remarkable number.

The smaller circulation tabloids were no immune from the decline in circulation with the Scottish Daily Express dropping 11.5 per cent drop (46,122 to 40,791) and performing slightly better, the Scottish Daily Mail  with a smaller drop of only 3.4 per cent, from 90,021 to 86,958.

SUNDAY TITLES

Doing the same exercise for the main Sunday tabloids makes equally depressing reading for the papers.

The Sunday Mail  dropped 9.2 per cent, from 219,267 to 195,011 thus losing 24,256 customers every Sunday.

The Scottish Sun’s Sunday edition fell by 5.6 per cent from 171,099 to 161,485, losing 9614 customers every Sunday.

The figures on the other Sundays all show a drop in circulation.

Scottish Mail on Sunday is down 5.3 per cent from 78,603 to 74,410.

Scottish Sunday Express dropped 11.4 per cent, from 26,383 to 23,365.

The Sunday Post fell 14.8 per cent from 149,809 to 127,589.

Source: ABC, November 2015.

Please note: The Scotsman, Scotland on Sunday, The Herald and the Sunday Herald now appear in the twice-yearly ABC regional newspapers report.