Former Express online editorial director Tom Hunt is now editor-in-chief of the brand.

In recent months Gary Jones has left the Express after six years as editor-in-chief and subsequently Sunday Express editor David Wooding also departed.

Jones was the second editor-in-chief of a Reach national newspaper to leave their post this year after six years: Alison Phillips stepped down from the Mirror at the end of January and was succeeded by Caroline Waterston.

Also this year London free business newspaper City AM, which is expanding its remit nationally, has appointed its former editor Christian May to return to the role.

Press Gazette has put together a round-up of the UK’s national newspaper editors as they stand (in no particular order). We will keep this list updated.

UK national newspaper editors

The Times

Tony Gallagher was appointed editor of The Times on 28 September 2022 following the resignation of John Witherow the day before.

Gallagher was promoted from deputy editor, and had already been acting as caretaker editor for several months while Witherow was on medical leave.

Gallagher joined The Times in February 2020 from fellow News UK title The Sun where he was editor for five years. He has also previously edited The Daily Telegraph between 2009 and 2014.

The Sunday Times

Ben Taylor was named editor of The Sunday Times on 19 January 2023, stepping up from deputy editor after news Emma Tucker would be leaving to lead The Wall Street Journal from 1 February.

Taylor was previously executive editor of the Daily Mail, where he worked for 22 years, before joining The Sunday Times as deputy editor in 2020.

Daily Mail

Ted Verity has edited the Daily Mail since November 2021, having previously been at the helm of the Mail on Sunday since 2018 and deputy at the daily paper before that.

He is editor-in-chief of Mail Newspapers, meaning he has overall responsibility for the Mail brands in a seven-day operation.

Mail on Sunday

Following Verity’s promotion, David Dillon was appointed to be Mail on Sunday editor in December 2021. He was previously Verity’s deputy.

Dillon first joined the Mail on Sunday from the Daily Express in 2001, working as news editor for a number of years before being promoted to executive editor.

The Sun and The Sun on Sunday

Victoria Newton has been editor-in-chief of The Sun since February 2020. She had been editor at The Sun on Sunday since 2013 but took over from Gallagher when he left The Sun for The Times.

Newton has maintained responsibility for the Sunday title in her editor-in-chief role.

Daily Mirror

Caroline Waterston, previously editor-in-chief of Reach magazines and supplements, has edited the Daily Mirror since the start of February 2024 – initially on an interim basis before she was made permanent on 30 April.

Waterston first joined Reach (then Trinity Mirror) in the mid-1990s and her roles have included deputy news editor and features editor of The People, features editor of the Sunday Mirror, head of features and deputy editor on the Sunday titles, deputy editor-in-chief across the Express and Star titles after their acquisition by Reach, and editor-in-chief of the national magazines including OK! magazine.

Waterston took over from Alison Phillips, who had edited the Daily Mirror since March 2018 and was editor-in-chief of that title plus the Sunday Mirror and Sunday People from February 2020 with the move to a seven-day operation.

The Daily Telegraph

Chris Evans has been editor of The Telegraph since January 2014 after the sacking of Tony Gallagher. He has been with The Telegraph since 2007, with previous roles including news editor and head of news, after joining from the Daily Mail where he spent 11 years.

The Sunday Telegraph

Although Evans has ultimate editorial responsibility at The Telegraph, Allister Heath has edited The Sunday Telegraph since 2017, having previously been Telegraph deputy editor.

Daily Express and Sunday Express

Tom Hunt, formerly Express online editorial director, was named editor-in-chief of the brand on 20 September.

At the Daily Express he succeeded Gary Jones who stepped down after six years in the role, which he used to detoxify the brand. Sunday Express editor David Wooding departed his own role about two months later as the Express becomes a seven-day operation without a dedicated Sunday Express team.

Before that Hunt had been with the Express for more than eight years, including as video news editor, leading its first team dedicated to video, and head of news.

Hunt said: “There is a huge opportunity here which I’m excited to take further, both digitally and in print, particularly as we cover Labour’s first months in office and see out a Conservative leadership contest.”

The Guardian

Katharine Viner has been editor-in-chief at The Guardian since 2015, when she was voted by staff to take over from Alan Rusbridger. She was previously editor-in-chief at The Guardian’s US edition.

The Observer

Under Viner’s leadership, Paul Webster edits The Observer. Viner appointed him to the role in 2018, after 20 years as deputy at the Sunday paper.

i

Oly Duff has been editor-in-chief of the i since June 2013, when he became the UK’s youngest national newspaper editor aged 29 – a title he maintains today.

Financial Times

Roula Khalaf has edited The Financial Times since January 2020, when she succeeded Lionel Barber who spent 14 years as editor.

Khalaf had been Barber’s deputy since 2016 and her previous roles at the FT included foreign editor and Middle East editor. She first joined the business newspaper in 1995.

Daily Star

Jon Clark has been seven-day editor-in-chief at the Daily Star since March 2018 after the paper was bought by Reach (then Trinity Mirror). He was previously associate editor at the Daily Mirror from 2013.

Daily Star on Sunday

Under Clark’s leadership, Denis Mann edits the Daily Star on Sunday and is a deputy on the daily. He has similarly held the role since March 2018.

The Independent

Geordie Greig was appointed as editor-in-chief of the digital-only The Independent in January 2023, just over a year after being ousted from editing the Daily Mail. He has previously edited the Mail on Sunday, Evening Standard and Tatler.

He took over at The Independent from David Marley, who had been acting editor since October 2020 when Christian Broughton was promoted to managing director.

Free newspaper editors

Metro

Deborah Arthurs is editor-in-chief of Metro in print and online, having taken the lead on a new combined operation in March 2023.

She had been editor of Metro.co.uk from 2014 and a “gentle refresh” of the brand aligning print and online marked the beginning of her tenure as overall editor.

Arthurs has taken over from Ted Young, who had been editing the print newspaper for eight years.

Evening Standard

Former GQ editor of 22 years Dylan Jones was appointed editor-in-chief of the Evening Standard following a brief period as editorial consultant.

Jones began in the role on Monday 5 June 2023, becoming the news outlet’s first permanent editor in more than 18 months.

Before him, Jack Lefley was acting editor from July 2022 and Charlotte Ross had previously been acting editor from October 2021.

The last full-time editors were Emily Sheffield, who left in October 2021 after 15 months, and former chancellor George Osborne, who was in post between May 2017 and July 2020.

City AM

Former City AM editor Christian May is returning to the free business title after almost four years away at the end of August 2024.

He succeeds Andy Silvester, May’s former deputy who took on the role himself, whose last day was Thursday 18 July.

May described his previous five-year stint as editor as “the happiest and most rewarding years of my life”, adding: “I couldn’t be more excited to rejoin the team at City AM as it gears up for an ambitious era of growth and innovation.”

The post Who are the UK’s national newspaper editors? appeared first on Press Gazette.

Reach-owned Scottish newspaper the Sunday Mail was the only paid-for title to see any minor circulation growth in October, according to the latest public ABC figures.

The Sunday Mail’s average weekly circulation was up 0.5% month-on-month in October to 44,382.

However it still saw year-on-year decline of 16%, joining the rest of the Reach-owned national newspapers which all saw annual decline of 15-20%.

Of the rest of the publicly audited national newspapers, the Mail on Sunday saw the smallest month-on-month decline of -0.1% to 568,734 and the biggest was at Scottish title the Daily Record, down 1.6% to 46,128.

DMGT-owned newspapers Daily Mail, Mail on Sunday and the i all kept their annual print circulation declines in single digits in October, as did the Financial Times.

The Daily Mail, with an average daily print circulation of 667,662 in October, and the Mail on Sunday both saw year-on-year drops of 8%.

The i was down 4% to 123,155 while the Financial Times saw a drop of 3% to 108,964 (of which 29% were bulk copies distributed for free in locations like airports and hotels).

National newspaper circulations in October 2024 (ABC) with monthly and yearly changes – this page will be updated monthly:

Read more: Widening gulf between weekday and Saturday UK newspaper sales revealed

The column for bulks refers to copies which are circulated for free at venues such as airports and hotels.

The above figures do not include the Sun, Times and Telegraph titles which have all chosen to keep their ABC circulations private since the start of 2020. The Guardian and Observer joined them in September 2021.

The last ABC figures we have for these titles are as follows:

• The Sun: 1,210,915 (March 2020)
• The Sun on Sunday: 1,013,777 (March 2020)
• The Sunday Times: 647,622 (March 2020)
• The Times: 365,880 (March 2020)
• Daily Telegraph: 317,817 (December 2019)
• Sunday Telegraph: 248,288 (December 2019)
• The Observer: 136,656 (July 2021)
• The Guardian: 105,134 (July 2021)

If these titles have fallen in line with rest of the industry their current circulations as of February 2024 would be as follows:

• The Sun: 700,000
• The Sun on Sunday: 600,000
• The Sunday Times: 322,000
• The Times: 180,000
• Daily Telegraph: 190,000
• Sunday Telegraph: 125,000
• The Observer: 80,000
• The Guardian: 60,000

2022 in focus

These charts show UK national newspaper circulation over the 12 months to March 2023.

2000-present

We have also charted the longer-term change in ABC circulation over the past 20 years across the UK press.

These charts show the extent of the print decline from The Sun reaching 3.76m in 2000 and the Sun on Sunday's launch in February 2012 with a short-lived 3.21m before dropping to just above 2m.

Meanwhile, though the Daily Mirror and Daily Mail once were competitive in print reach at around 2.3m-2.4m in 2000, the Mail now has a circulation three times the size of its former rival.

The Sunday tabloids all saw a spike in 2011 after the closure of the News of the World but few retained the readers – the Sunday People and Sunday Mirror did best at doing so, but largely lost them when the Sun on Sunday launched.

Continue reading for previous months' coverage of the UK's most popular newspapers:

September 2024

The circulation of the Financial Times was up 5% between August and September, the latest ABC figures show.

The FT had a circulation of 109,966, marking a drop of 2% compared to September 2023 - the smallest annual decline among the publicly audited national newspapers.

However the FT has the largest proportion of bulks (copies given away for free at locations like airports and hotels) which were on 31,491 or 29% of its total circulation, and non-UK copies which made up 52% of its ABC total (57,358 copies).

The next smallest annual circulation decline was at the i, down 4% to 124,075 of which 3% were bulk copies.

The biggest annual decline was at Reach tabloid the Sunday People, down 20% to an average of 50,394 weekly copies sold. The Daily Star Sunday (64,645) and Scottish title Sunday Mail (44,144) were both down 18%.

On a monthly basis, the FT was the only title to see growth although free papers Metro (951,154) and City AM (68,144) both stayed steady.

The biggest monthly drops were at the Daily Mirror (212,300), Daily Star Sunday and Sunday Mail, all down 4%.

August 2024

The Daily Star Sunday now has a smaller circulation than the free City AM for the first time since the business newspaper launched 19 years ago.

The average Daily Star Sunday weekly circulation fell by 2% month-on-month and 16% year-on-year in August to 66,994.

London-only title City AM stayed steady compared to July on 68,144 and grew by 5% compared to August last year, with an average of 68,144 on Mondays to Thursdays.

The majority of the paid-for newspapers in our monthly ABC circulation round-up saw a double-digit year-on-year drop in August, led by fellow Reach tabloid the Sunday People which was down 20% to 51,961.

The only paid-for newspaper not to fall on an annual basis was the Financial Times, which stayed steady on 104,826. Of these 31,324 are bulk copies (which are given away for free at locations like airports and hotels).

Compared to July, the Daily Record was narrowly the only paid-for title not to see a drop, staying steady on 48,472.

The Evening Standard began its transition away from being a daily newspaper at the end of July when it dropped its Monday and Friday editions. Nonetheless it dropped its distribution by only 1%, albeit 10% year-on-year, to 273,631.

July 2024

The Sunday People suffered the biggest decline in print circulation among the UK's national newspapers in July.

The weekly Reach tabloid's ABC circulation was down by 20% year-on-year and 2% month-on-month to 52,350.

The only national newspaper to see year-on-year growth in July was the Financial Times, which was up 2% to 108,070 despite seeing the joint biggest month-on-month decline of 2%.

Compared to last July, the FT's newsstand sales were down but paid subscriptions, bulk copies (which are given away for free at locations like airports and hotels) and non-UK copies were up.

Among the rest, the smallest annual decline was at the i, which was down 3% to 127,526. The i also had the biggest month-on-month growth, of 2%.

July marked the Evening Standard's final month printing five days a week as it phases out its daily edition ahead of going weekly. It dropped its Monday and Friday editions at the end of the month.

Across the month the Standard had an average print distribution of 276,885 - up 1% month-on-month but down 9% year-on-year.

June 2024

The average daily print circulation of the i is now higher than the Daily Star's for the first time in its history.

The change comes two months after the i's circulation was also higher than the Sunday Express for the first time as the DMGT-owned title's print readership has stayed relatively steady for several months.

In June the i reported an ABC print circulation of 125,545 - narrowly edging above the Daily Star on 125,525.

The i, which launched in October 2010, saw growth compared to May of 1% and and annual decline of 14%.

Meanwhile the Daily Star reported a month-on-month drop of 1% and year-on-year fall of 15%.

Pre-Covid, in the first half of March 2020, the Daily Star had an average circulation of 276,453 - at the time 28% higher than the i on 215,640.

The biggest circulation drops in June were at the Sunday People (20% down to 53,501), Daily Star Sunday (18% down to 68,003) and Sunday Mail (18% down to 46,794).

As well as the i, the Financial Times was the only paid-for newspaper to grow its circulation, up 2% month-on-month and steady year-on-year at 110,736. Although the FT's paid newsstand sales were up marginally (to 12,534) its subscription copies were down 1% (to 9,069).

Free London daily City AM upped its distribution year-on-year by 1% to 68,112 and stayed steady compared to May.

May 2024

The Evening Standard dropped its distribution by 12% in May compared to the previous year as it announced plans to end its daily publication and go weekly in print.

This was a 12% year-on-year drop for the second month running although its distribution stayed steady between April and May.

The Standard distributed an average of 275,683 copies per day in May, according to the latest ABC figures.

As recently as October 2022 the Standard was distributing more than 400,000 copies a day. It has been below 300,000 since October 2023.

Before the Covid-19 pandemic it was distributing around 800,000 copies per day.

Meanwhile, every paid-for national newspaper saw their print circulation decline in May - although it should be noted that the year-on-year comparison is affected by the boost several Sunday newspapers saw last year from the King's coronation.

Reach tabloid the Sunday People saw the biggest drop compared to May 2023, with its average circulation down by 24% to 54,150.

Also dropping by more than a fifth year-on-year were fellow Reach weeklies the Sunday Express (down 22% to 124,581) and Daily Star Sunday (down 21% to 69,200).

The only paid-for newspapers to fall by less than 10% year-on-year were the i (down 5% to 124,904) and Financial Times (down 1% to 108,824).

On a month-by-month basis, the Sunday Mail in Scotland was the only title to see growth compared to April, as its circulation was up 1% to 48,292.

The biggest month-on-month decline was of 4% at the Daily Mirror (to 225,983), Daily Record (to 49,673) and Sunday Post (to 34,581).

Free newspaper Metro kept its distribution steady both month-on-month and year-on-year while London free business newspaper City AM grew marginally year-on-year and stayed steady from April into May.

April 2024

The i's print circulation is now higher than the Sunday Express for the first time in its history, according to the latest ABC data.

In April the circulation of the i, which launched in 2010, stayed steady compared to the previous month and fell by 5% year-on-year to 126,266.

The Sunday Express fell by 2% month-on-month and 17% year-on-year to 125,990, resulting in it falling one place down our monthly table.

The biggest year-on-year print circulation decline was again at the Sunday People, down 21% to 55,526. The largest month-on-month drop was of 4% at the Daily Star Sunday, to 69,766.

The Financial Times was, as in March, the only paid-for newspaper not to see annual decline, staying steady compared to April last year. Its average circulation was 109,868 made up of 12,068 newsstand copies, 9,365 subscriptions, 31,155 bulk copies (distributed for free in locations like airports and hotels) and 57,280 copies in other countries.

Of the rest of the paid-for newspapers, the i was the only one to see single-digit decline. Its DMGT stablemates the Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday each declined by 10% year-on-year to 699,240 and 586,187 respectively.

March 2024

The Mail on Sunday's average print circulation fell below 600,000 in March, according to ABC.

The Sunday newspaper's circulation fell by 1% compared to February and 10% versus March 2023, reaching 594,414.

The Mail on Sunday's circulation is now about half of where it was in October 2017 - six and a half years ago.

However, in that time there has been a notable shift in its circulation mix with subscriptions making up a greater slice of the pie: newsstand sales are down 5% to 524,545 but paid subscriptions are up 404% to 69,869.

Meanwhile in Scotland the Sunday Mail, owned by Reach, fell below a circulation of 50,000 - reaching 48,597 following a month-on-month decline of 3%. This is more than half of its pre-Covid circulation of 104,608.

Also in March, the Daily Star grew its average circulation by 3% month-on-month to 134,924 while the Daily Mirror (237,233) and Financial Times (109,181) were up 1%. Others were steady or down by up to 3%.

The ABC figures are average per issue, meaning they should not be skewed by the fact March was a longer month than February, with one extra weekend.

The biggest year-on-year decline was at the Sunday People, down 21% to 57,163, followed by the Sunday Mail and Sunday Post (35,848) each down 17%. The only paid-for title not to see decline was the Financial Times, which stayed steady compared to March last year.

The Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday's digital editions stayed steady month-on-month, with active views per issue of 88,176 and 89,639 respectively.

February 2024

The Financial Times saw the biggest month-on-month drop in print circulation among the publicly audited national newspapers in February.

The FT had an average circulation of 108,125 in February according to ABC, down 6% compared to January - although it lost just 0.4% compared to a year earlier.

Subscriptions (9,255) were down 12% month-on-month to 9,255 while newsstand sales (12,227) were down 7% to 12,227 and global circulation (55,781) was down 8% to 55,781. But bulks (free copies distributed at locations like airports and hotels) were steady on 30,862.

The FT also had a digital edition circulation of 16,403, up 5% month-on-month.

The Daily Mail digital edition had average actively-viewed copies of 88,346 in February, up 1% month-on-month and 3% year-on-year.

The Mail on Sunday’s digital edition was on 90,062, up 1% and 2% respectively.

The Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday are top of the table among the paid-for newspapers that have their ABC circulations published, with circulations of 705,311 and 600,311 respectively.

Their next rival in the public table, the Daily Mirror, is several hundred thousand behind on 234,492.

Reach tabloid the Sunday People again reported the biggest annual decline, down 22% to 57,670 - the only drop in this set of figures of more than a fifth. It was followed by sister title Daily Star Sunday, down 18% to 72,363.

Free London title City AM was the only newspaper to grow its distribution year-on-year in February, upping its print run by 1% to 68,009. Month-on-month it was up by the same percentage and was joined by fellow free title the Evening Standard, which had a circulation of 277,238. The Standard, however, was down 11% compared to the year before.

January 2024

The Sunday People was the only national newspaper to see a print circulation decline of more than a fifth in January 2024.

The Reach tabloid had an average weekly circulation of 58,831 in January - down 22% year-on-year and 3% month-on-month.

Sister Reach titles the Daily Star Sunday, Daily Star, Sunday Mail, Daily Record and Sunday Express all saw their circulations down by 15 to 17% year-on-year, as did DC Thomson's Sunday Post.

The only paid-for newspaper to stay steady year-on-year was the Financial Times, on 115,118. Its newsstand sales were down 14% but subscriptions were up 3%, bulk copies (those distributed in locations like hotels and airports) were up 1% and non-UK readership was up 4%.

The FT's actively purchased sales in the UK and Ireland averaged 24,000 with the rest of the circulation in Europe, Asia and the US.

The free Metro (953,856) and City AM (67,215) papers also kept their circulations about the same as in January 2023.

Month-on-month, the Daily Star Sunday saw the biggest decline of 8% to 73,103. The FT was up 1% as was free London paper the Evening Standard (277,238).

The Mail titles also report their digital edition readership numbers: the Daily Mail’s digital edition had an average circulation of 87,571 in January, up 1% month-on-month and 2% year-on-year. The Mail on Sunday's digital edition was up 2% month-on-month and 1% year-on-year to 89,326.

The FT published a digital edition figure of 15,594, down 6% year-on-year but up 12% month-on-month. This figure includes FT Premium and FT e-paper subscribers and customers through distributors Barnes and Noble, Media Carrier and Gold Key Media.

December 2023

December was a reasonable month for print circulation among the UK's national newspapers, with some experiencing monthly growth.

Scottish weekly the Sunday Mail saw the biggest growth compared to November, up 5% to 52,842, followed by the Financial Times (up 4% to 114,338), Daily Star Sunday (up 3% to 79,218) and the Daily Mail (up 2% to 733,577).

The Sunday Post and Daily Express also grew by up to 1% while the Daily Mirror and the i fell by less than 1%.

Decline continued across the board when compared to December 2022, however, but it was lower than usual at some titles.

Often several newspapers see their circulation fall by about a fifth year-on-year but in December the only newspaper down that much was the Sunday People (a fall of 19% to 60,470).

Behind that, the Daily Star (136,909) and Daily Record (54,379) were both down by 14%.

The smallest annual circulation decline was at the i, down 7% to 128,110.

The Telegraph, which no longer publishes its total circulation (see below), has revealed it had an average weekly subscription number of 1,035,710 in December, made up of 117,586 in print, 688,012 in digital, and 230,112 across Telegraph Wine Cellar, Telegraph Puzzles and Chelsea Magazine Company.

The Mail titles also report their digital edition readership numbers: the Daily Mail's digital edition had an average circulation of 86,744 in December (up 2% month-on-month and 5% year-on-year) while the Mail on Sunday was on 87,910 (up 1% and 3% respectively).

November 2023

The i was the only UK national newspaper to avoid month-on-month print circulation decline in November.

The DMGT-owned newspaper stayed steady, growing 0.1% compared to October to an average circulation of 128,566.

The i also saw the second-smallest year-on-year drop of 7.4%, behind only the Financial Times which fell by just 0.3% to 110,220.

[Read more: As digital subs overtake print at i, editor Oliver Duff explains why future is bright for title]

The FT's newsstand sales (12,822) and paid subscriptions (9,373) were both down but the newspaper increased its bulk copies given away at locations like airports and hotels (32,001) and global distribution (56,024).

Free London newspaper City AM also stayed steady both month-on-month and year-on-year, with an average distribution of 67,940.

The biggest month-on-month declines were at the Sunday Post (down 2.7% to 38,160), the Sunday Mirror (down 1.9% to 182,978), the Sunday Mail (down 1.9% to 52,104) and the FT (down 1.7%).

The biggest annual drops were at the Sunday People (down 20.3% to 61,570), the Sunday Post (down 18.1%) and Daily Star Sunday (down 17.4% to 76,868).

October 2023

The Financial Times saw the smallest change in its print circulation in October, according to the latest monthly analysis of UK national newspapers.

The business newspaper grew by 0.4% month-on-month and declined by 0.3% in October to an average daily circulation of 112,139.

This included a slight increase (2% month-on-month and 6% year-on-year) in bulk copies distributed for free at locations like airports and hotels. These made up 29% of the FT's circulation in October.

The i, where bulks make up 1% of its circulation, had the next smallest annual decline in October of 8% to 128,494.

No other paid-for UK national newspapers that continue to publicly report their circulation figures still distribute bulk newspapers.

The biggest year-on-year circulation declines among paid-for titles were at Reach tabloids with a 22% drop at the Sunday People to 62,143 and a 19% fall at the Daily Star Sunday to 78,051.

Free title the Evening Standard saw the biggest drop overall, with its distribution down 27% compared to October 2022 to 293,663. This is the first time its distribution has gone below 300,000 since October 2009 when it became a free newspaper.

September 2023

Many UK national newspapers reported steeper-than-usual annual print circulation declines in September due to comparisons with the previous year when the death of The Queen appeared to lead to an uptick in sales.

The Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday both saw their circulation fall by 17% year-on-year in September - up from an average decline of mostly somewhere between 10% and 13% each month in the year so far.

The biggest year-on-year decline among paid-for nationals was at the Sunday People (down 24% to 62,712) followed by sister Reach title Daily Star Sunday (down 22% to 79,198).

Meanwhile the i, also owned by Mail publisher DMG Media, saw its average circulation fall below 130,000 in September to 129,133. Its earliest available ABC figures for January 2011, three months after its launch, show it was then on 133,472.

The Financial Times was the only newspaper to avoid a month-on-month circulation decline, growing by 7% to 111,738. It also reported the smallest drop compared to September last year, down 2%.

August 2023

Annual declines in print national newspaper circulations across the board continued in August.

The biggest year-on-year drops were at the Daily Star Sunday (down 22.4% to 80,124) and the Sunday People (down 21.8% to 64,605).

The smallest annual decline was at the Financial Times, down 1% to 104,423 – of which 30,616 were bulk copies given away at locations like airports and hotels.

London business newspaper City AM did increase its free distribution by three-quarters compared to last summer, with an average of 64,729 copies distributed each Monday to Thursday in its first month of ownership by online retailer THG. It fell by 4% month-on-month.

The Daily Record was marginally the only paid-for title not to see a month-on-month drop in circulation. All others fell by up to 2% compared to July.

July 2023

Every national newspaper saw a year-on-year print circulation decline in July, according to the latest ABC figures.

The smallest annual decline was at the Financial Times, which fell by 1% to 106,038. The biggest drop was at the Sunday People, with the Reach tabloid falling by 22% to 65,460, followed by sister title the Daily Star Sunday down 20% to 80,847.

Free London newspaper the Evening Standard saw the biggest drop to its distribution overall, down 24% to 302,602. Fellow free London title, City AM, did see growth, increasing its distribution by 81%, compared to a dip last summer, to 67,600.

The FT did, however, have the biggest month-on-month decline of 4%. Three titles grew their circulations by a fraction of a percent compared to June: the Mail on Sunday, the i and City AM.

June 2023

The Sunday Mirror's print newspaper circulation fell below 200,000 for the first time in June.

In January 2000, the earliest data available on the ABC website, the Sunday Mirror had a print circulation of two million. By January 2020, just before the Covid-19 pandemic began, the paper was on 367,244.

Also in June, the Sunday People, sister title to the Sunday Mirror, saw its sales move below the free distribution of London business newspaper City AM.

City AM fell by 15% year-on-year to 67,602, staying steady month-on-month compared to May, while the Sunday People fell by 21% and 6% respectively to 66,950.

The smallest year-on-year declines were at the i and the Financial Times, which both saw their circulations fall by 5% to 130,945 and 111,014 respectively.

The biggest declines were of the Evening Standard's free distribution (down 29% year-on-year to 308,874) and the Sunday People.

Month-on-month, the FT's circulation was up 1% compared to May while Metro and City AM both kept their free distributions steady. The biggest drops were at the Sunday Express and Mail on Sunday, both down 9% to 145,543 and 637,437 respectively.

May 2023

The Sunday Express rose above the Daily Star's print circulation in May as several Sunday newspapers saw a month-on-month boost, likely as a result of souvenir coverage of King Charles III's coronation.

Charles and Camilla officially became King and Queen on Saturday 6 May, with many Sunday titles producing souvenir editions with extra pages and wraparound front covers on the following day.

The Queen's death and funeral in September similarly led to a boost in audience both in print and online.

In May, the Mail on Sunday grew by 7% month-on-month, the Sunday Express was up 6%, the Sunday Mirror by 3%, the Sunday People by 2%, and the Daily Star Sunday by 1%. All continued to fall on a year-on-year basis, however, although by a lower percentage rate than the monthly reports frequently show.

At the Mail on Sunday, paid single copies grew by 7% to 622,360 and subscriptions rose by 8% to 75,585. However at the Sunday Express the boost primarily came from newsstand sales, which were up by 6% to 150,909, whereas subscriptions, on which the title relies less, were up by only 1% to 9,182.

The boost at the Sunday Express took it above the Daily Star's circulation for the first time since January 2021 and May 2020, both anomalous months. Before May 2020, the daily title had been higher in our ranking since December 2011.

April 2023

Print circulation decline continued across the board at the UK's national newspapers in April.

The biggest drop among paid-for nationals was at the Sunday People, down 22% to 69,990. London's free Evening Standard, however, saw a greater fall of 31% to 311,216.

The smallest decline was at the FT, which dropped 2% year-on-year to an average monthly circulation of 109,637. It is the only ABC-audited newspaper to distribute a significant number of bulk free copies at locations such as airports and hotels as part of its circulation, but these fell by 9% so the smaller decline cannot be attributed to that portion of its circulation.

The only newspapers to grow by 1% between March and April were the Daily Mirror and the free City AM. The biggest month-on-month drop was of 3% at the Sunday People.

March 2023

The i reported the smallest annual print circulation decline among the UK’s national newspapers in March, according to the latest ABC figures.

The i’s circulation was down 7% in March compared to a year before, reaching 131,825. It was the only annual decrease under 10%.

The biggest decline was at the Evening Standard, where its free distribution was down by 31% year-on-year to 310,236.

The biggest paid-for drop was at the Sunday People, down by 21% to 72,091 – the only newspaper with an annual decline of more than a fifth in March.

Every newspaper publicly audited by ABC saw their circulation between February and March change by a narrow margin of between -2% (Daily Star Sunday, Sunday People, Sunday Post) and 1% (Financial Times, Daily Star).

The highest circulation paid-for print newspaper remains the Daily Mail, on 777,586 (down 11% year-on-year and 1% month-on-month). Metro, distributed for free in 50 UK cities, was on 952,424 (down 11% and 0.4% respectively).

February 2023

The Evening Standard has dropped its distribution by almost a third in a year.

The newspaper reported an average distribution of 311,485 for February, meaning it is nearing its circulation from before it went free – its final ABC report as a paid-for newspaper was 256,229 in September 2009.

December was the only month since then that it has been lower, on 310,933, than February’s total. Pre-Covid in February 2020 it was distributing an average of 787,447 copies per day.

The biggest print circulation decline of the UK’s paid-for national newspapers in February was Reach tabloid the Sunday People, which fell by 23% to 73,875. Reach told staff in January the People would begin to share most content with the Sunday Mirror, which itself was down 18% to sales of 209,197.

Fellow Reach title the Daily Express was the only other title aside from the People to fall by more than a fifth, going down by 21% to 173,372.

The smallest annual declines were at the i, which was down 8% to 132,222, and the Financial Times, down 9% to 108,562.

However the FT reported the biggest month-on-month drop of 5%.

Metro and City AM both kept their free distributions steady compared to January, and while the Daily Star Sunday was the only paid-for newspaper to see no month-on-month decline the Daily Star and Sunday Mail each fell by less than 1%.

January 2023

The Daily Mail's print circulation fell below 800,000 for the first time in January, according to the latest ABC data.

The newspaper reported an average circulation of 797,704, a dip of 12% year-on-year or 2% month-on-month. The Sun, traditionally its rival for the top of the table, is among the newspapers that no longer make their print circulations public.

In March 2020, the last time it published its ABC total, The Sun was on a circulation of 1,210,915 versus 1,132,908 for the Mail. The Mail then overtook The Sun for the first time in 42 years in May that year with a circulation of 980,000 and continues to be the UK's best selling daily.

The only newspaper to report growth in January compared to the same month last year was the Financial Times, up by 1% to 114,685, although it also saw the biggest month-on-month decline of 11% due to a decrease in non-UK circulation, bulk copies distributed in locations such as airports and hotels, and newsstand sales.

The biggest year-on-year decline was at the free Evening Standard, which reduced its distribution by 30% to 314,285, followed by the paid-for Reach tabloid Sunday People, down 23% to 75,521.

The Daily Star Sunday, Daily Express, Sunday Post, Sunday Mirror, Sunday Mail and Sunday Express all saw their circulations decline year-on-year by 20%. However all except the Daily Star Sunday and Daily Express stayed steady or grew month-on-month. All are owned by Reach, except the Sunday Post which is owned by DC Thomson.

The biggest month-on-month growth was at City AM, which stopped putting out newspapers on Fridays in January due to low commuter numbers on that day. Editor Andy Silvester said at the time that distribution on Mondays to Thursdays had almost reached pre-pandemic levels.

December 2022

Free newspapers Evening Standard and City AM suffered the biggest drops in their print distribution in December compared to the previous year.

The titles appeared to be distributing fewer copies as publishers suffer rising paper and energy costs amid continued changes to working patterns that see fewer commuters on Mondays and Fridays in particular. Subsequent to these figures, in January City AM has dropped its Friday print edition - but its editor Andy Silvester said the paper was "thriving" on the other four days of the working week.

The Evening Standard's distribution in December was down by 30% year-on-year to 310,933 - its lowest since before it went free in October 2009.

Meanwhile City AM was down 25% to 58,664 and also saw the biggest month-on-month decline, down 14% from November.

Fellow free newspaper Metro also dropped its print distribution, but by a much lesser margin: in December it was down 6% year-on-year and 1% month-on-month to 965,960.

Among the paid-for newspapers whose circulations are published by ABC, several Sunday titles published by Reach all lost more than a fifth of their circulations year-on-year: the Sunday People was down 24% to 74,601, the Daily Star Sunday was down 23% to 88,434, the Sunday Mirror was down 21% to 208,794 and the Sunday Express was also down 21% to 153,377. DC Thomson's Sunday Post in Scotland was also down 22% to 44,038.

These five titles, plus the Sunday Mail in Scotland, also posted the largest paid-for circulation declines month-on-month ranging between 6% and 3% down from November.

The smallest annual decline was at the i (down 5% to 137,039) followed by the Financial Times (down 8% to 128,794).

Two newspapers posted month-on-month growth: the Financial Times (up 17%) and the Daily Mail (up 2% to 812,106 - stopping it from dropping below 800,000 for the first time).

November 2022

Print decline across the board continued among the UK's national newspapers in November.

The smallest drop was at the i, which saw its print circulation decline by 3% year-on-year to 138,782.

The biggest was at the free Evening Standard, which dropped its distribution by 27% to 319,485. Among paid newspapers, it was Reach tabloid the Sunday People, down to to 77,300 - a 23% drop compared to November 2021.

The only newspaper not to report decline month-on-month was the Sunday Post in Scotland, which grew by 88 copies, or 0.2%, on average.

The Daily Mail remains the biggest paid-for print newspaper of those that publicly release their ABC circulations, staying just above 800,000. The free title Metro had an average distribution of 977,077 in November.

October 2022

No UK national newspapers saw print circulation growth, whether year-on-year or month-on-month, in October.

The latest ABC figures show the smallest declines among paid-for newspapers were at the i (down 3% year-on-year to 140,196 – the only single-figure annual decline) and the Financial Times (down 1% month-on-month to 112,478).

Many national newspapers saw month-on-month growth in September, likely down to appetite for souvenir editions following the death of the Queen.

The biggest drops between September and October, possibly indicating the newspapers with the biggest boost from the national mourning period, were at the Daily Mail, Mail on Sunday and Daily Express, which all fell by 8% month-on-month.

The biggest annual declines were at DC Thomson’s Sunday Post in Scotland and Reach tabloid the Sunday People, down 22% and 21% respectively.

The Daily Express, FT, Sunday Mail and Daily Star Sunday all saw year-on-year falls of 19%.

September 2022

A strong appetite for print newspapers and souvenir editions following the death of the Queen appears to have led to month-on-month circulation growth almost across the board at the UK's national newspapers.

But the uplift was not high enough for most to report annual growth.

Of the eight publicly audited paid-for titles that saw month-on-month growth - the Daily Mail, Mail on Sunday, Daily Mirror, Sunday Mirror, Daily Express, Sunday Express, i and Financial Times - there was an average uplift of 4%. This growth was the same when factoring in the free distributions of Metro and the Evening Standard.

Including every newspaper in our ABC table, excluding City AM which appears to be an anomaly with its free distribution boosted by 37% following a severe slump, there was average month-on-month change of 2%.

The biggest month-on-month change was at the Financial Times, up by 8% to 113,992, followed by the Mail on Sunday (749,960) and i (147,609) which both grew by 5%.

However, annual decline continued at every newspaper except the Financial Times and the i. Although both are the only newspapers that still put bulk copies into locations like airports and hotels, making up 27% of the FT's circulation and 4% at the i, more of their annual growth was down to newsstand sales than this strategy.

The i was in fact at its highest level since December 2020, when it had a circulation of 148,927.

The biggest annual declines were at the Sunday People (down 20% to 82,275) and Sunday Post (down 19% to 48,938).

Scroll down or click here for new graphs charting the ups and downs of the UK national press in the past 20 years.

August 2022

The Financial Times saw marginal year-on-year growth in circulation in August, with every other newspaper continuing to decline.

The FT had a circulation of 105,748 in August compared to 105,213 the year before. Its newsstand sales and non-UK circulation grew although paid subscriptions and bulks (copies distributed for free at locations such as airports and hotels) were down.

Month-on-month, the only newspapers to see growth were the Daily Star Sunday, up 2% to 103,200 and the Scottish title Daily Record which was up by 1% to 69,316. Both are owned by Reach.

The Evening Standard also upped its free distribution, although by less than 1%. Its print readership in July was its lowest since before it went free in October 2009, with August the second lowest. Its year-on-year decline of 19% was one of the biggest in our table.

Fellow London free title City AM is also at its lowest distribution (36,640) since its 2005 launch. Its print edition was paused for 18 months during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Reach-owned Sunday People's circulation was down the most, by 22% to 82,597, with DC Thomson's Sunday Post down by 20% to 48,943.

July 2022

Every publicly audited UK national newspaper recorded a year-on-year decline in circulation in July.

Even the Financial Times, which has seen year-on-year growth every month since July 2021, was down by a few hundred copies compared to the year before. This was the smallest annual decline among the audited newspapers.

The Metro distributed less than one million copies for the first time since May 2021, when it trumpeted making it back over that milestone following the worst of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The biggest year-on-year decline was a drop of 22% at the Sunday People.

Month-on-month, however, there was growth of 2% at the i largely down to an increase in paid subscriptions.

The biggest decline from June to July was at City AM, where free distribution more than halved to 37,369.

June 2022

Every publicly ABC audited UK national newspaper saw circulation decline from May to June with the exception of the i which saw growth of 0.2%.

Compared to June 2021, the Financial Times was the only paid-for newspaper to report growth, of 8% to 116,498.

Since the Covid-19 lockdowns ended the FT's circulation increases have largely been put down to the return of the distribution of free bulk copies at locations like airports and hotels. But in June a 17% year-on-year increase in bulk copies to 35,094 was also accompanied by 9% growth in paid newsstand sales to 15,612 (alongside a 4% decline in subscriptions to 9,076).

The smallest (4%) annual decline was at the i, which had a circulation of 137,964 and is the only other paid-for newspaper to still be shored up with free bulk copies - although they only account for 4% of its current total.

The biggest month-on-month decline was at the Sunday Mail in Scotland (down 5% to 66,469) while the biggest annual drop was at the Sunday People (down 23% to 85,212). Both are owned by Reach.

The free Metro was the only national newspaper other than the FT to grow year-on-year (by 3%) as it has upped its distribution this year compared to the Covid-hit 2020 and 2021.

May 2022

The Metro and Financial Times were the only national newspapers to grow their print readerships from last May to this year.

Metro had an average free distribution of 1,074,594 in May, staying steady month-on-month but growing by 17% since last year due to putting out more copies as people have returned to offices and public transport since the final Covid-19 lockdown.

The only paid-for newspapers to grow their circulations month-on-month in May were the Financial Times, up 4% to 116,747 as growth in subscriptions, non-UK sales and bulk copies distributed in locations like airports and hotels offset a drop in newsstand sales, and the Sunday Mail in Scotland, up 0.2% to 69,923. The Sunday Mail did, however, fall by 17% year-on-year.

The FT was the only paid-for paper to grow its circulation compared to May 2021, in large part because it has increased its distribution of bulk copies post-Covid from 25,361 last year to 34,661.

London's free business newspaper City AM has also continued its post-Covid growth, reaching its highest distribution level since returning in September from an 18-month hiatus.

Editor Andy Silvester told Press Gazette's Future of Media Explained podcast this month that the paper's return to pre-pandemic levels "probably proves a lot of sceptics wrong". In May City AM's average free distribution was 82,455, down 4% on February 2020 but up 1% month-on-month.

The biggest month-on-month declines were at the Daily Mirror and Daily Star, both down 4%, while the biggest annual drop was at the Sunday People, down 24%. All three are Reach titles.

April 2022

The Daily Mail and Daily Mirror both marginally grew their print circulations in April compared to March, bucking the industry's usual downward trend.

The Daily Mail was up 1% month-on-month to 879,102 while the Daily Mirror also grew by 1% to 327,341.

However both fell by 11% compared to April 2021 and both figures were still their second-lowest respectively since ABC auditing began.

The Daily Mail's digital edition had a readership of 76,315 in April.

Free newspapers Metro, Evening Standard and City AM all also saw month-on-month growth, increasing their print distributions.

After an 18-month Covid-enforced hiatus, free business newspaper City AM returned to print in September and has now upped its distribution for three months in a row. It is now at 81,713, its highest since February 2020 when it was on 85,738.

Metro remains the most-distributed newspaper in the UK, putting out 1,074,889 copies for free in April.

The Sun, Times, Telegraph and Guardian titles no longer publish their ABC print circulations, having opted to take them private and focus on other metrics - for example, online subscriptions for The Telegraph and Times.

The Financial Times saw an 8% decline month-on-month to 112,344 but grew by 12% on April last year, making it the only paid-for newspaper to grow year-on-year. This is largely because it is putting out more bulks - free copies in locations such as airports and hotels - than it did for much of the Covid-19 pandemic (now 33,849 compared to 22,487 last year) while it has also roughly tripled subscriptions in a year (to 9,776).

March 2022

The Mail on Sunday under editor David Dillon had a circulation of 748,965 in March.

Similar to its competitors, the newspaper's circulation has been in steady decline over several years. In March, it fell by 14% year-on-year and 2% compared to the month before. It is down a fifth from 952,914 two years earlier in March 2020, before the Covid-19 pandemic hit.

The Mail on Sunday is currently in the centre of a sexism row around a story reporting that Deputy Labour Leader Angela Rayner had been accused of crossing and uncrossing in the House of Commons to distract Prime Minister Boris Johnson. Dillon refused to meet Commons Speaker Lindsay Hoyle, saying journalists should “not take instruction from officials of the House of Commons, however august they may be”.

The Mail on Sunday's circulation remains behind the Daily Mail on 875,125 but a long way ahead of its next ABC-audited paid competitor, the Daily Mirror on 325,271.

The Sun, Times, Telegraph and Guardian titles all no longer publish their ABC-audited circulations.

The Financial Times was once again the only paid-for newspaper to see year-on-year growth, due to putting out more bulk copies in locations like airports and hotels than in March 2021. It was up 21% on the same time last year, to 121,490 - of which a third (40,958) were bulks.

However its circulation was higher in October to December last year, and its last pre-pandemic figure was 146,373 in March 2020. At that time about a fifth were bulk copies.

City AM's free distribution rose above 80,000 for the first time since it resumed printing in September after an 18-month Covid-enforced hiatus. It distributed an average of 80,440 copies in March compared to 85,738 in February 2020.

The Metro remains the most-distributed newspaper in the UK, putting out 1,073,993 copies for free in March.

February 2022

The Daily Mail's print circulation has fallen below 900,000 for the first time in more than 100 years.

In February the newspaper sold an average of 896,455 copies each day - or 767,021 on weekdays and 1,449,049 on Saturdays - following a month-on-month drop of 1% and year-on-year decline of 7%.

The Daily Mail launched in 1896 with sales of 397,215. Within its first few years it surpassed one million and, despite a brief drop in 1915 in a row with the Government over troops' munition supplies, remained above that mark until the Covid-19 pandemic.

Sister title Mail on Sunday had an average circulation of 767,756 in February, down 2% month-on-month and 10% year-on-year.

The Sun, for many years the Daily Mail's closest ABC rival, no longer publishes its circulation - but the Mail overtook the red-top for the first time in 42 years in 2020.

The most-circulated national newspaper remains the free Metro, with a distribution of 1,066,327 that was up compared to both the month and year prior.

By contrast, fellow free newspaper the Evening Standard was down 9% year-on-year to 448,043.

The biggest annual declines were at Reach's Sunday People (95,637, down 20%) and Daily Star Sunday (107,478, down 19%).

January 2022

The Daily Mail was the only paid-for national newspaper to grow its circulation from December to January.

It reported 1% growth month-on-month, while its year-on-year decline of 5% to 909,201 was the smallest among the paid-for newspapers that don't use bulk copies.

The Financial Times grew by 17% year-on-year to 113,817 while the i grew by 1% to 142,598. Excluding bulk copies given away for free at locations such as airports and hotels, the FT grew by 3% to 79,446 and the i stayed steady on 137,483.

The biggest year-on-year decline was at Reach's Daily Star Sunday, which fell by 19% to 110,133. Month-on-month, the biggest decline was at the FT, which dropped by 18%.

Metro stayed steady between December and January but reported a 72% year-on-year jump. It built back its free distribution, which was massively scaled back in the early pandemic, and crossed the 1m mark once again in May last year.

December 2021

The Daily Star’s circulation has fallen below 200,000 for the first time in its 43-year history.

The tabloid had an average daily readership of 197,998 in December, according to the latest ABC figures, following a 2% month-on-month drop and a 14% decline since a year earlier.

The figures show continuing print readership decline as the lowest the Star’s circulation had gone during the first Covid-19 lockdown was 219,275 in April 2020.

It follows Reach stablemate Sunday People’s circulation falling below 100,000 in November.

In December the Daily Star Sunday and Sunday People saw the biggest annual circulation drops of 20% and 19% respectively.

The only paid-for newspaper to grow year-on-year was the Financial Times, which has upped the number of bulk copies given away for free since last year. However it still fell 2% month-on-month with bulk copies, newsstand sales and subscriptions all down in December.

The only newspaper to see month-on-month growth was City AM, which returned to print in September and in December was distributing an average of 78,418 copies each day compared to 85,738 in February 2020.

November 2021

The first ABC figures for London freesheet City AM since it returned to print in September show distribution is down 9% since February 2020.

Meanwhile, in November the Sunday People's circulation dropped by 21% to 99,915 - the first time since ABC records began in 2000 that its average circulation was below 100,000, even during the earlier Covid-19 lockdowns.

City AM distributed an average of 77,959 copies each weekday between 8 and 28 November, compared to 85,738 in February 2020.

Chief executive Jens Torpe told Press Gazette in September he hoped to reach pre-pandemic levels of distribution within about a month of relaunching.

According to the newspaper's ABC certificate it has hugely boosted its number of distribution points from 913 in February 2020 to 3,632. The business paper struck a deal to be found in all WeWork’s London locations and new offices, and went further out into the commuter belt to compensate for changing travel patterns as many City workers stuck with flexible working.

Average pagination has gone from 28 in February 2020 to 26, with editorial content up from 70% to 72%.

Nationally-published free newspaper Metro, which continued distributing throughout the pandemic for groups like key workers who kept travelling, remains 25% down on its February 2020 distribution level with 1.05m. It re-crossed the 1m mark in May and is the most-read newspaper in the UK.

The Evening Standard, which like City AM is only distributed in London, is 44% down on its February 2020 level with a distribution of 439,445 - but chief executive Charles Yardley told Press Gazette this was a "comfortable number that’s working well". It also kept publishing throughout the pandemic, but experimented with free home delivery for the first time.

The only newspapers to record year-on-year growth in November were Metro and the Financial Times, which both grew by 37%. The FT's newsstand sales were down by a quarter but subscriptions and bulk copies distributed for free were both up.

October 2021

The FT has grown its circulation by a third in the past year, and by a quarter between September and October, largely by putting out more free bulk copies.

The newspaper reported a circulation of 138,446 in October, which includes 55,222 bulk copies distributed for free in places like airports and hotels which have more than doubled since October 2020.

The FT's newsstand sales have decreased by 29% from 20,357 to 14,490 in a year although paid subscriptions grew 191% from 3,697 to 10,764. The FT also reports sales in other countries of 57,970 within its total.

It is the FT's highest circulation since the first three weeks of March 2020, when it was on 146,373, while the trend at most paid-for newspapers has been decline throughout 2021. (The i, which is up since January, is the only other national to put out bulks).

Meanwhile Metro has settled its free distribution on 1.05m which is up 35% compared to October 2020 when some workers had begun to return to work but at a slower pace than expected.

Its free rival in London, the Evening Standard, is down 10% compared to last year on 457,542.

The Saturday edition of the Daily Mail remains the most-read newspaper with a weekly circulation of 1.47m. The weekday edition sells 784,439. Both the daily and Sunday editions saw a 9% year-on-year decline.

The biggest year-on-year decline was once again at The Sunday People, which fell by 19% to 101,597. The Daily Star Sunday was down 18% to 118,260.

September 2021

Reach's Sunday People and Sunday Post newspapers recorded the biggest year-on-year declines in circulation in September of the publicly-audited national newspapers.

Both saw their circulations decline by 19% while the Sunday Mirror, Daily Star Sunday and Sunday Mail all fell by 14%. All are owned by Reach.

The Financial Times was the only paid-for newspaper to grow its circulation year-on-year, by 7% to a total of 111,898. However its free bulk copies, distributed in locations such as airports and hotels, increased by 41% to 32,351. Although paid subscriptions grew by 130% to 9,102, newsstand copies were down by a quarter to 15,154. Some 55,291 copies are sold in other countries.

Aside from the free Metro and the FT, every other newspaper remained steady between August and September changing by between 0% and -2%.

August 2021

The i was the only national newspaper to grow its paid circulation from July to August as subscriptions growth offset declining newsstand sales.

The i's print subscriptions grew from 23,199 in July to 25,223 in August. At the same time it put out more paid multiple copies, known as bulks, in locations such as airports and hotels (rising from 4,006 to 4,620).

Its average circulation therefore grew from 143,486 to 144,570. However this was still 5% down on last August.

The August ABC figures are the first in which the Guardian and Observer are absent, having chosen to keep their circulations private as News UK and the Telegraph did last year.

The Guardian's departure from the grid comes after its circulation was overtaken by the Financial Times in June for the first time since before the Covid-19 pandemic.

Previously the audited circulation of the FT had been above that of the Guardian since 2000, the earliest available online ABC records.

The FT was again the only paid-for title to have grown year-on-year as it distributes bulk copies that were missing during the pandemic. It grew 12% year-on-year to 105,213 in August but fell by 2% from July.

The free Metro more than doubled its August 2020 figure following the end of the winter lockdown and the ramping up of its distribution to reach people increasingly venturing out again. It has now distributed an average of more than 1m copies per day for three months in a row.

July 2021

Putting on bulk copies has helped the FT to grow its circulation by nearly a quarter (24%) year-on-year while sales of The i paper have fallen by just 1% over the same period, new ABC figures for July show.

The FT sells more than 107,000 copies, of which more than 32,000 are bulks. The i, which is now part of the Daily Mail group, has a circulation of more than 143,000 copies, with some 4,000 bulks.

The free Metro's distribution was in excess of 1m in July 2021, nearly tripling its print output during the height of the pandemic.

All other newspapers audited by ABC reported a fall in year-on-year circulation. The Telegraph, Sun and Times titles are not included.

The Daily Mail has the largest paid-for circulation among the titles audited by ABC at more than 933,000. Its sister title the Mail on Sunday is behind on a little over 813,000 copies.

June 2021

Reach’s national Sunday titles continued to experienced the biggest year-on-year circulation drops in the industry in June.

The Sunday Post dropped by 16%, Daily Star Sunday was down 15%, Scottish tabloid Sunday Mail was down 14%, the Sunday People was down 13% and the Sunday Mirror by 11%. The Sunday Express was Reach’s best faring Sunday title, falling by 7%.

The best performance among paid-for newspapers was at the Financial Times which grew by 38% year-on-year and 5% month-on-month to 108,014.

As lockdown restrictions have eased the FT has put the number of bulk copies which go to locations like airports and hotels back up by 751% - from 3,534 to 30,093 – putting it on a similar level to June 2019 when 31, 057 bulk copies were distributed. The number of copies it sold in other countries was also up, although this was half 2019 levels.

No other paid-for newspapers grew month-on-month, and the i was the only other to grow year-on-year, although this could mainly be attributed to an increase in bulk distribution similar to the FT.

However the i's bulks remain, by contrast, far below 2019 levels - 50,250 in June 2019 versus 3,699 this year.

The Metro has continued putting its free distribution back up as lockdown restrictions continued to ease. It went up by 10% between May and June and 224% compared to last June, topping 1m on average.

By comparison its rival in London, the free Evening Standard, has decided to maintain its distribution at Covid levels and concentrate on online growth. It was distributing 492,406 copies on average in June.

Scroll down or click here for new graphs charting the ups and downs of the UK national press in the past 20 years – with a spotlight on how Covid-19 affected circulations in the past year.

May 2021

The Financial Times and the i were the only paid UK national newspapers to grow their circulations in May compared to last year – despite the first Covid-19 lockdown's severe impact on spring 2020 newsstand sales.

Both newspapers reported growth even when their bulk copies (those distributed for free at locations such as airports and hotels) are taken into account.

The i grew its circulation by 3% year-on-year excluding bulks to 140,721 or by 5% to 144,192 when bulks are included.

Meanwhile the FT grew by 2% to 77,218, excluding bulks, in May. Including bulks it was up 30% to 102,579.

Every other national newspaper saw an annual decline, with the smallest at the Daily Express, owned by Reach, which fell by 1% to 239,024.

May continued the trend of Reach’s Sunday titles experiencing the biggest year-on-year drops, however (scroll down or click here to see April's report).

Scotland’s Sunday Post and Sunday Mail were down 14% and 11% respectively. Nationally the Daily Star Sunday was down 12% and the Sunday Mirror and Sunday People were both down 7%.

In May last year most national newspapers began to recover after their circulations had been hit hard by the first five weeks of the Covid-19 lockdown.

Month-on-month, the FT (2%), i (1%) and the Guardian (0%) were the only paid-for titles not to see a dip. The biggest decline from April was at the Mail on Sunday (5%).

The ABC figures also demonstrated the impact of loosening Covid-19 restrictions on free newspapers as Metro and the Evening Standard increased their distributions by 190% and 9% respectively compared to May last year.

April 2021

Reach’s four Sunday titles – the Daily Star Sunday, Sunday Express, Sunday Mirror and Sunday People – were the only national titles to have a lower circulation in April than they did during the UK’s strictest Covid-19 lockdown one year earlier.

The rest of the UK’s national newspapers are back above the circulations of their worst Covid slump, which took place amid uncertainties about the future for the industry as the UK was told to stay at home at the start of the pandemic.

Despite its 7% annual decline, the Daily Star Sunday had the biggest month-on-month growth of 3%. Most paid-for titles were able to keep their April circulations similar to March, with a drop of -1% the largest nationally and of -2% at the Sunday Mail the biggest overall.

The Scottish title, which is also owned by Reach, was down year-on-year by 6% to 85,450.

Despite the declines at Reach's Sunday titles, its national dailies the Mirror and Express were up by 2% and 3% respectively compared to April last year.

The Financial Times grew by 13% year-on-year to 100,215 in April. However it has upped its number of free copies distributed at locations such as airports and hotels from 7,042 last April to 22,487 – excluding these, its circulation has decreased 5% to 77,728.

By contrast the i, the only other paper to include bulk free copies in its ABC audited circulation, was up by 7% if they are included (143,380) and 9% if they are not (140,013).

This equals the Observer, which was also up 9% compared to last April to reach 140,894 copies each week.

The i’s DMGT stablemates the Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday were also both up by 4% and 5% respectively on last year. DMGT’s free title Metro has been “building back” its distribution, as editor Ted Young told Press Gazette last week, to reach an average of 805,471 per day in April. It then topped 1m on 17 May as lockdown restrictions eased.

The Evening Standard also increased its free distribution compared to last April, by 16% to 492,575. Chief executive Charles Yardley has told Press Gazette he is planning to keep numbers at around half a million going forward.

March 2021

Paid-for national newspaper circulations have fallen by almost a fifth (18%) on average since just before the first Covid-19 lockdown.

The final year-on-year comparison with pre-Covid ABC newspaper circulations shows the biggest declines have been at the i and Financial Times, which are both down by about a third to 143,204 and 100,781 respectively.

They are the only two paid-for ABC-audited titles continuing to distribute bulk copies to public locations such as airports. Excluding bulks, the FT’s circulation fell by 35% year-on-year and the i’s fell by 18%.

The smallest, and only single-digit, declines were at the Mail on Sunday and Observer which both saw their circulation fall by 9% in the past year to 867,077 and 142,277 respectively in March 2021.

ABC’s March 2020 report spanned 2 to 22 March, stopping before the first lockdown came into place – although many people began working from home and curtailing social gatherings from about a week earlier.

The Evening Standard’s free circulation is down by 29% to 494,364 compared to March last year. The newspaper’s chief executive Charles Yardley told Press Gazette this month he remains committed to print but will not raise the distribution back to pre-pandemic levels.

Free rival Metro has dropped its distribution by half to 695,444. It initially dropped by 70% in April last year and rose to a

The biggest-selling issue of a UK national newspaper remains the Daily Mail’s Saturday issue, which sold an average 1,588,164 copies each week last month compared to 1,699,891 in March last year.

February 2021

The Observer reported the smallest drop in print circulation among UK national newspapers in February – but this was still down by 9% on the year before.

The Observer, which had an average circulation of 140,920, was the only newspaper not to see a double-digit drop. The next smallest decline was the Mail on Sunday, which fell by 12% to 848,526.

Sister title the Daily Mail was the only publication to see month-on-month growth from January, up 1% to 964,825. It was 15% behind the 1,134,184 it had in February 2020 before the Covid-19 pandemic hit the UK.

However, the Daily Mail’s digital edition grew its average circulation by 4% from 94,171 in January to 98,107.

[Read more: See latest online audience data published by Pamco here]

In February free titles Metro and Evening Standard distributed 58% and 38% fewer copies respectively compared to the year before. Both are continuing to publish for key worker commuters although most people remain under a “stay at home” order, with the Standard also delivering to doorsteps in certain parts of London.

The biggest paid-for circulation drops in February were at the Financial Times (down 36%) and i (35%), the only two ABC-audited titles continuing to distribute bulk copies to public locations such as airports.

Excluding bulks, the FT was down 40% and the i was down 18% - taking it below the Daily Star’s 20% decline.

January 2021

The UK’s current coronavirus lockdown has not hit national newspaper circulations as hard as last year’s strict April restrictions did, according to new figures from ABC.

However, most titles are now again below the circulation levels to which they had begun to recover in May last year.

The Daily Mail’s print circulation has fallen to its lowest since the peak of the Covid-19 crisis in April.

The UK’s top-selling newspaper sold an average of 960,019 copies each day in January, an 18% drop year-on-year. In April it reported a circulation of 944,981, which grew to 979,836 in May.

The Mail overtook The Sun in May 2020 and Press Gazette understands it has since consolidated its lead.

Digital edition sales add a further 77,736 to the Mail's daily circulation figure, according to ABC - keeping it above 1m.

In March last year, before the first UK lockdown, the Mail was selling in excess of 1.1m copies per day.

Also below their May 2020 circulations were the Mail on Sunday, Daily Mirror, Sunday Mirror, Daily Express, Daily Star, Sunday Express, Daily Star on Sunday, Sunday People, and the Guardian.

Only the Observer, i and Financial Times were above their May figures from last year in January.

Several national newspapers saw bigger year-on-year drops in January than the Mail: the FT’s circulation fell by 39%, the i by 35%, the Sunday Post by 22%, the Daily Star by 21%, the Daily Express by 19% and the Daily Mirror by 19%.

The smallest year-on-year drop was at the Observer, which saw a decline of 8% to a circulation of 143,764.

The biggest month-on-month fall from December was also at the FT (down by 8% to 97,067) followed by the Daily Star Sunday, i and Guardian which were all down by 5%.

The only title to report any growth was Scottish tabloid the Sunday Mail, which was up 1% month-on-month to 88,819.

Metro and the Evening Standard, which had their free commuter distribution models hit by the Covid-19 lockdowns, were down 58% and 39% respectively year on year in January.

December 2020

The Mail on Sunday reported the smallest drop in print circulation in December – but this was still down by 9% on the year before.

It had an average circulation of 954,497 in December 2019, down to 865,439 last month. It was the only newspaper not to see a double-digit year-on-year decline, with the Observer the second smallest drop (by 10% to 147,296).

The Financial Times saw its print circulation fall by more than a third (35%) year-on-year to 105,358 – the biggest fall among the UK’s paid-for national newspapers.

However, the FT did grow by 1% month-on-month as it continues to recover from the initial Covid-19 lockdown slump common to each of the titles.

The Guardian saw the biggest month-on-month growth of 2% in December.

The biggest fall from November 2020 was at the Sunday People, down 5% to 120,429.

Wales went into lockdown on 20 December while Scotland and Northern Ireland were placed under tight restrictions from Boxing Day and much of London and the south east of England entered strict Tier 4 restrictions days before Christmas.

Metro and the Evening Standard, which had their free commuter distribution models hit by the Covid-19 lockdowns, were still 45% and 38% down respectively on the previous year’s print readership.

November 2020

Several national newsbrands managed a month on month increase in print circulation in November, with The Observer seeing the biggest rise at 4%.

The Observer's print circulation rose from 145,680 to 152,129 having remained steady in the previous month.

The Sunday Express, the Sunday People and the Guardian also saw print sales rise 1%, after seeing declines between September and October

The Observer saw the smallest year-on-year decline at 5%. It was the only title not to report a double-digit year-on-year fall.

The Financial Times had the biggest paid-for decline (36% to 104,024) followed by the i (31% to 151,888).

Metro and the Evening Standard, which had their free commuter distribution models hit by the Covid-19 lockdowns, were still 46% and 40% down on the previous year's print readership.

October 2020

The Observer was the only national print newspaper brand not to see a year on year print circulation decline in October.

The Observer's print readership remained steady on 145,680 as every other title except the Mail on Sunday, which fell by 9%, reported a double-digit year-on-year decline.

The Financial Times had the biggest paid-for decline (39% to 105,592) followed by the i (31% to 151,888).

Metro and the Evening Standard, which had their free commuter distribution models hit by the Covid-19 lockdowns, were still 45% and 39% down on the previous year's print readership - although Metro managed to add a fifth back onto its output in October.

Press Gazette is hosting the Future of Media Technology Conference. For more information, visit NSMG.live

The post Newspaper ABCs: Sunday Mail in Scotland manages to hold off monthly decline in October appeared first on Press Gazette.

Press Gazette is honoured to announce the finalists for the British Journalism Awards 2024.

This year’s British Journalism Awards attracted 750 entries encompassing every major news organisation in the UK.

The finalists are announced today following a three-week process involving 80 independent judges and two days of jury-style meetings.

In order to make the shortlists work has to be revelatory, show journalistic skill and rigour and serve the public interest.

The winners will be announced on 12 December at a dinner in London hosted by Radio 2 presenter and journalist Jeremy Vine.

Details here about how to book tickets.

The shortlist for News Provider of the Year will be announced following a second round of judging. The winners of Journalist of the Year, the Marie Colvin Award and the Public Service prize will be announced on the night.

Chairman of judges and Press Gazette editor-in-chief Dominic Ponsford said: “Without journalism, Boris Johnson would still be prime minister, wronged postmasters would not have a voice and victims of the infected blood scandal would not have a chance of compensation.

“The 2024 British Journalism Awards shortlists celebrate the stories which would not be told without journalists willing to shine a light on uncomfortable truths and publications brave enough to back them up.

“Congratulations to all our finalists and thank you to everyone who took the time to enter the British Journalism Awards.

“In a media world which is increasingly controlled by a few parasitic technology platforms it is more important than ever to celebrate the publishers willing to invest in and support quality journalism that makes a difference for the better in our world.”

British Journalism Awards 2024 shortlist in full:

Social Affairs, Diversity & Inclusion Journalism

Natasha Cox, Ahmed El Shamy, Rosie Garthwaite — BBC Eye Investigations

• Perfume’s Dark Secret

Jessica Hill — Schools Week

• Missing from mainstream: Excluded children with nowhere to go
• ‘Out of sight, out of mind’: The rise of unregistered alternative provision
• Hospital schools: On the mental health crisis frontline

Sasha Baker, Valeria Rocca — The Bureau of Investigative Journalism

• The parents group at the centre of a rollback of trans rights
• ‘One day they may thank us for that “abuse”’: Inside the Bayswater Support Group

Rianna Croxford, Ruth Evans, Cate Brown, Ed McGown, Tom Stone, Ed Campbell, Karen Wightman — BBC Panorama

• The Abercrombie Guys: The Dark Side of Cool

Daniel Hewitt, Imogen Barrer, Mariah Cooper, Reshma Rumsey — ITV News

• Nowhere to go: Britain’s homeless emergency

Louise Tickle — Tortoise Media

• Taking the stand: Grace’s story
• Taking the stand: Emma’s story

Abi Kay — Farmers Weekly

• Level the Field
• Is there a problem with young farmer culture?
• Editor’s view: Facing hard truths about young farmer culture

Joshua Nelken-Zitser, Ida Reihani, Kit Gillet — Business Insider

• Iran will pay for gender-transition surgery, but it comes at a cost — your dignity

Features Journalism

Sophie Elmhirst — 1843 magazine, The Economist and The Guardian

• The last stand of the call-centre worker
• Chortle chortle, scribble scribble: inside the Old Bailey with Britain’s last court reporters
• Last love: a romance in a care home

Jenny Kleeman — The Guardian

• America’s premier pronatalists on having ‘tons of kids’ to save the world: ‘There are going to be countries of old people starving to death’
• She was accused of faking an incriminating video of teenage cheerleaders. She was arrested, outcast and condemned. The problem? Nothing was fake after all
• ‘I know someone who played noughts and crosses on one’: meet the top surgeon who burned his initials on a patient’s liver

Sirin Kale — The Guardian

• ‘My child was drowning’: life and death on an English maternity ward
• The life and tragic death of John Balson: how a true crime producer documented his own rising horror
• The Russell murders: is Michael Stone in prison for a brutal crime he didn’t commit?

Zoe Beaty — The Independent

• How Nigel Farage took over my hometown – and why Keir Starmer should be worried
• My battle to bring a predatory Met Police officer from the same unit as Wayne Couzens to justice
• ‘A court packed with those who know their way around already, and jails are too full to take them’

Inderdeep Bains — Daily Mail

• My doctors insist it’s time I died – but I will fight them: Extraordinary case of 19-year-old woman suffering from Charlie Gard condition battling medics’ attempts to ‘condemn her to death’
• Sudiksha: ‘Condemned to Die in Secret’ – The Shocking Story of the 19-year-old’s fight to live

David James Smith — The Independent

• How did so many miss the sinister warning signs about James Bulger’s killer for so long?
• Is Lucy Letby innocent? I’m a miscarriage of justice investigator – and here’s what I think…
• The wife of this Murdoch executive has been missing since the Sixties – will her body now be found?

Fiona Hamilton — The Times

• Nottingham attacks: ‘We have no faith in the police. We want justice’
• ‘A horrible way to die … and no doctors can help you’
• Realising Sarah Everard got into a sex offender’s car was horrific

Barbara McMahon — Daily Mail

• Ghislaine Maxwell ‘was tortured in prison – now she’s ready for a comeback’: Jeffrey Epstein’s socialite pimp runs half marathons at low-security Florida lock-up and is now ‘focused and motivated’ for her appeal next week, her brother reveals
• ‘I shook Epstein’s hand and asked him what my daughter would be doing’: Virginia Roberts’s father describes dropping her off at paedophile’s mansion, meeting ‘despicable’ Ghislaine… and blasts Prince Andrew for showing ‘no remorse’
• Black Widow who ‘relished killing and had no regard for human life, even for children’: Griselda Blanco shot a child in the head when she was 11 and rose to be Miami’s drug kingpin. As she’s immortalised on Netflix, her son recalls his ‘fearsome’ mother

Local Journalism

Abi Whistance, Joshi Herrmann, Kate Knowles, Mollie Simpson, Jothi Gupta — Mill Media

• Special investigation: The collapsing world of Liverpool’s charity kingpin
• Investigation: The spectacular rise and sudden fall of Gurpaal Judge
• Exclusive: How did a semi in Harpurhey sell for £1.8m?

Richard Newman, Jennifer O’Leary, Gwyneth Jones, Chris Thornton — BBC Spotlight

• Katie: Coerced and Killed

Sam McBride — Belfast Telegraph

• Lough Neagh has become a scene of Biblical disaster, and Stormont was central to its destruction
• Killing Edgar podcast

Chris Burn — The Yorkshire Post

• Building societies scandal: Yorkshire victims reveal shocking stories – and plead for action to be taken
• Philips Trust: FCA got ‘Ponzi scheme’ warning on firm at heart of £138m building society scandal – 18 months before collapse
• Leeds, Newcastle and Nottingham Building Societies to pay tens of millions to Philips Trust victims

Jane Haynes — Birmingham Mail and Birmingham Mail/Post

• Teacher’s ‘life blown apart’ in onslaught of hate as false racism claim goes viral
• The truth exposed about ‘secretive’ council meeting on equal pay crisis in Birmingham
• ‘Like a prison’ – the tower block for homeless families that has 8pm curfew and no visitors allowed

Wendy Robertson — The Bridge

• The Bridge newsletter

Health & Life Sciences Journalism

Rebecca Thomas — The Independent

• Mental health patients ‘raped and sexually assaulted’ as NHS abuse scandal revealed
• Nicholas’s story: ‘I’ve been locked up for 10 years because I’m autistic. Is a chance at life too much to ask?’
• Revealed: NHS regulator’s ‘culture of fear’ that leaves rogue nurses free to abuse patients

Fin Johnston — The Bureau of Investigative Journalism

• Science for sale: Philip Morris’s web of payments to fund tobacco research
• Inside the strategy doc Philip Morris never meant you to see
• Tobacco state: why Japan was the perfect testing ground for Philip Morris

Hannah Barnes — The New Statesman

• The trauma ward
• The Cass Review into children’s gender care should shame us all
• Hundreds of doctors are challenging the BMA’s stance on puberty blockers

Robbie Boyd, Eamonn Matthews, Steve Grandison, Ian Bendelow, Sophie Borland, Katie O’Toole, Islay Stacey, Ali Watt, Frances Peters — Quicksilver Media for Channel 4 Dispatches

• Undercover A&E: NHS in Crisis

Ellie Pitt, Cree Haughton, Justina Simpson, Ellie Swinton, Patrick Russell, Liam Ayers — ITV News

• The Dark Side of Cosmetic Surgery

Martin Bagot — Daily Mirror

• Day in the life of a dentist – and why it’s nothing like you imagine as NHS nears collapse
• Britain’s dental health crisis exposed as hundreds of children in hospital with bad teeth
• Urgent warning amid fears cosmetic fillers could cause immune system problems

Hanna Geissler — Daily Express

• ‘I’m terminally ill – assisted dying must be legalised so my daughter won’t see me suffer’
• Assisted dying ‘allowed me to mostly forget’ fears, says Aussie man hit by brain tumour
• Dame Esther’s assisted dying petition delivered to Prime Minister’s doorstep

Crime & Legal Affairs Journalism

Sue Mitchell, Rob Lawrie, Joel Moors, Winifred Robinson, Dan Clarke, Philip Sellars, Tom Brignell, Mom Tudie — BBC

• To Catch a Scorpion
• How we found Europe’s most wanted migrant-smuggler
• Why the BBC could track down a people-smuggling kingpin before the police

Gabriel Pogrund, Katie Tarrant — The Sunday Times

• Millionaire’s ‘sex worker immigration scandal’
• Hamish Ogston: millionaire accused of exploiting women ‘set up charity to help win knighthood’
• Hamish Ogston: tycoon asked Met to arrest woman who accused him of sex trafficking

Mike Sullivan, Jerome Starkey, Mike Ridley — The Sun

• ‘Distraught’ Holly Willoughby under police guard after man is arrested over terrifying ‘kidnap plot’
• Police chief faces ‘Walter Mitty’ probe after being pictured wearing Falklands medal despite being 15 at time of war

Hannah Summers — The Bureau of Investigative Journalism

• Family Court Files: mother ‘devastated’ after rapist father granted contact with child
• Family Court Files: Psychologist’s evidence used to ‘ramp up’ allegations of parental alienation
• Kristoffer White: TBIJ wins court battle to publish name of sex offender

Rianna Croxford, Ruth Evans — BBC Panorama and BBC News

• Abercrombie & Fitch ex-CEO accused of exploiting men for sex
• Lawsuit accuses Abercrombie & Fitch of funding sex-trafficking operation
• FBI investigate after ex-Abercrombie boss sex claims

Isobel Yeung, Alex Nott, Esme Ash, Nick Parnes, Alistair Jackson, Matt Bardo, Sarah Wilson — Channel 4 Dispatches

• Britain’s Unsolved Crimewave: Dispatches

Comment Journalism

Daniel Finkelstein — The Times

• Israelis and Palestinians must start to listen
• Wes Streeting’s lessons from Richard Nixon and China
• Here’s the Keir Starmer I’ve known for decades

Matthew Syed — The Sunday Times

• When I was at school a teacher could call me the P-word. We’ve come so far
• The storm is gathering, and Europe is still dithering on defending itself
• Locked in by language, we are freed by music, poetry, painting … and love

Will Hayward — WalesOnline/The Will Hayward Newsletter

• The most pointless job in Wales
• The worst political leader in the UK
• Bluster, fluster and ‘word salad’ nonsense: Vaughan Gething ducks and weaves like a boxer at the Welsh Covid Inquiry

Kitty Donaldson — i

• Part political update, part group therapy: inside Starmer’s Cabinet meeting
• Grenfell is a tragic reminder to the Tories that regulation is not a dirty word
• The winter fuel row is a painful wake up call for new Labour MPs

Frances Ryan — The Guardian

• A summer defined by men killing women and girls. This can’t go on
• Think of this: a plan to ‘warehouse’ disabled people. What kind of nation is Britain becoming?
• Cropped out, banned, airbrushed: the school photos that show the ugly face of Britain today

Duncan Robinson — The Economist

• Why the next Westminster scandal is already here
• The narcissism of minor differences, Labour Party edition
• British boomers are losing out for the first time

Specialist Journalism

Peter Blackburn — The Doctor (by the British Medical Association)

• Nowhere left to turn
• Fears for patient care due to shortages of chronic alcohol misuse treatment Pabrinex
• Not the only failing

Lucinda Rouse, Emily Burt, Ollie Peart, Louise Hill, David Robinson, Rebecca Cooney, Andy Ricketts, Nav Pal, Til Owen — Third Sector

• The End of Charity podcast

Lucie Heath — i

• Revealed: Water firms dumped sewage 5,500 times in a year ‘illegally’
• Revealed: The hidden sewage spills damaging our national parks and beauty spots
• Toxic water, debt and sewage dumping: How Britain’s rivers got so bad

Deborah Cohen, Margaret McCartney — BMJ/Pharmaceutical Journal

• Inclisiran: the ‘extremely unusual’ political influence behind the novel drug’s approval
• Galleri promises to detect multiple cancers—but new evidence casts doubt on this much hyped blood test
• Inclisiran: Government’s strategy to promote cholesterol lowering drug after Brexit was “spectacular failure,” says insider

Lee Mottershead — Racing Post

• Revealed: the racehorse owner fronting an illegal bookmaker with more than 1,000 customers
• ‘People don’t want to provide bank statements. We’ve got so many people betting with us’

Jessica Hill — Schools Week

• The rise of the parent activist
• AI’s allure is proving hard to resist for the UK’s learners
• ‘Out of sight, out of mind’: The rise of unregistered alternative provision

Emily Townsend — Health Service Journal

• Over 30 sepsis deaths linked to ‘systemic’ failings, investigation reveals
• Revealed: Doubling of average waits for critical stroke treatments
• Midwives call women in labour ‘Asian princesses’ amid ‘hostile’ environment fears

Roya Nikkhah — The Sunday Times

• Prince Harry at 40: ‘All he does is spend time looking back’
• The hospital heart-to-hearts that brought Kate and King even closer
• Prince William to build houses for homeless on his land in Cornwall

Foreign Affairs Journalism

Christina Lamb — The Sunday Times

• Gun in hand, the Israeli settler tells the Palestinian: I will kill you
• First Hamas fighters raped her. Then they shot her in the head
• ‘Who will protect us?’: Christina Lamb on the Yazidis’ dangerous journey home

Alex Crawford — Sky News

• Libya floods: Child’s voice heard under rubble as rescue teams search desperately in Derna for survivors
• Warning of Islamic State’s growing resurgence – as Sky News gets rare access to terrorists’ families
• Report from Lebanon

Kim Sengupta — The Independent

• Bombs, betrayal and burying loved ones: Plight of one Ukraine village illustrates toll of Russia’s invasion
• ‘I have buried more than 50 friends’: My life as a British soldier fighting on Ukraine’s bloody front line
• The families of hostages taken by Hamas are desperate – but can Israel get them back?

Vanessa Bowles, Jaber Badwan — Channel 4 Dispatches

• Kill Zone: Inside Gaza

Louise Callaghan — The Sunday Times

• The secret city of tunnels where hundreds live below Vegas glitz
• Claudia Sheinbaum: Meet the woman ready to be Mexico’s first presidenta
• Stand-off at Eagle Pass: welcome to the epicentre of the US border crisis

Secunder Kermani — Channel 4 News

• Palestinian detainees allege torture and sexual abuse by Israeli captors
• Myanmar military forces victims to fight in brutal civil war

Gesbeen Mohammad, Brad Manning, Nechirvan Mando, Ghoncheh Habibiazad, Esella Hawkey, Tom Giles, Hafez — ITV

• Inside Iran: The Fight for Freedom

Stuart Ramsay, Dominique van Heerden, Toby Nash — Sky News

• Haiti gang boss will take part in talks if invited – but warns foreign forces will be treated as ‘invaders’
• Aboard ‘The Beast’: What do migrants face travelling through Mexico on way to US?
• Shocking scenes in Gaza hospital as IDF moves into Khan Younis | Israel-Hamas war

Arkady Ostrovsky — 1843 magazine, The Economist

• Life and death in Putin’s gulag
• Death and destruction in a Russian city
• Life and fate (podcast)

Technology Journalism, sponsored by Amazon

Alexander Martin — The Record from Recorded Future News

• Ransomware attacks hit record level in UK, according to neglected official data
• UK government urged to get on ‘forward foot’ with ransomware instead of ‘absorbing the punches’
• Exclusive: UK to propose mandatory reporting for ransomware attacks and licensing regime for all payments

Marianna Spring — BBC News

• The real story of the news website accused of fuelling riots
• Trump supporters target black voters with faked AI images
• X takes action on deepfake network smearing UK politicians after BBC investigation

Joe Tidy — BBC World Service

• ‘Pig butchering’ scammers target BBC reporter
• Sextortion warning: In six hours, my son was dead
• Stolen test data and NHS numbers published by hospital hackers

Amanda Chicago Lewis — 1843 magazine, The Economist

• Secrets of a ransomware negotiator

Cathy Newman, Job Rabkin, Emily Roe, Sophie Braybrook, Guy Basnett, Ed Howker — Channel 4 News

• Deepfake Porn

Helen Lewis — BBC Radio 4/BBC Sounds

• Helen Lewis Has Left the Chat

Energy & Environment Journalism, sponsored by Renewable UK

Sam McBride — Belfast Telegraph

• Apocalypse Neagh: The source of 40% of NI’s water is ‘dying’
• Watch: Sam McBride’s in-depth look at Lough Neagh’s blue-green algae crisis

Josephine Moulds — The Bureau of Investigative Journalism

• Backroom deals, mystery companies and a ‘killer lake’: inside DRC’s gas and oil auction
• HSBC helped oil and gas industry raise $47bn despite net-zero pledge
• Barclays’ billions of ‘sustainable’ finance for fossil fuel industry is greenwash, says investor

Esme Stallard, Becky Dale, Sophie Woodcock, Jonah Fisher, Libby Rogers — BBC News

• Water firms illegally spilled sewage on dry days – data suggests
• BBC uncovers 6,000 possible illegal sewage spills in one year

Rachel Salvidge, Leana Hosea — The Guardian/Watershed

• The Watershed Pollution Map
• Landfills across England could be leaking harmful toxic ooze, warn experts
• ‘It’s a poison and it’s killing us’: the hidden dangers of old UK landfills

Guy Grandjean, Patrick Fee, Gwyneth Jones, Chris Thornton — BBC Spotlight Northern Ireland

• Spotlight – The Lough Neagh Monster
• Hundreds of environmental breaches by Moy Park

Sofia Quaglia — The Guardian

• ‘If we can’t fish any more, we’re going to die’: the volunteer sea patrols protecting precious Philippine waters
• From sea to plate … to sea! Hong Kong puts oyster shells to new use
• ‘It smells so bad’: glut of wild salmon creates stink in Norway and Finland

Jess Staufenberg — SourceMaterial

• Trojan Horsepower – Formula 1 and the Saudi oil lobby
• F1 lobbies for Saudi against EU green rules

Arts & Entertainment Journalism

Mark Daly, Mona McAlinden, Shelley Jofre, Jax Sinclair, Karen Wightman, Hayley Hassall — BBC Panorama

• The Dark Side of Ballet Schools

Jonathan Dean — The Times and The Sunday Times

• Oasis reunion and Wembley gigs next year … is that definitely, maybe?
• Ridley Scott: I didn’t need historians to make my Napoleon epic
• Olly Alexander on Eurovision: ‘I was trying not to have a breakdown’

Rachael Healy — The Guardian and Observer

• ‘At the start you get molested and by 45 you’re too old to work’ – the secret misery of women working in TV
• Fresh crisis at ‘toxic’ Strictly as ex-staff claim they faced sexualised comments and cruelty
• ‘The outrageousness of what Louis CK did is totally lost’: the film about the backlash faced by his accusers

Tom Bryant — Daily Mirror

• BBC’s Huw Edwards scandal teen breaks silence in first interview – ‘I felt groomed’
• Huw Edwards scandal teen: Why I first tried to protect BBC star but now feel shame
• Paul O’Grady’s beloved dog nuzzled star’s shoulder as devoted husband battled to save him

Lucy Osborne, Stephanie Kirchgaessner — The Guardian and Observer

• ‘I honest to God believe I was drugged’: magician David Copperfield’s alleged victims speak out
• The FBI investigated David Copperfield for two years. The claim that he was ‘exonerated’ was widely embraced. Was he?
• ‘Magic David called’: David Copperfield repeatedly contacted Jeffrey Epstein

Clemmie Moodie, Hannah Hope, Scarlet Howes — The Sun

• Strictly pro Giovanni Pernice probed over serious complaints by 3 ‘traumatised’ contestants as BBC ‘gathers evidence’
• Strictly Come Dancing bosses make huge changes to show after Giovanni Pernice quits
• Strictly bombshell as Amanda Abbington demands backstage footage of her and Giovanni as she is diagnosed with PTSD

Carolyn Atkinson, Olivia Skinner — BBC Radio 4 Front Row

• The British Museum’s missing gems
• Painting stolen in art heist more than 30 years ago returned to Glasgow museum

Rosamund Urwin, Charlotte Wace — The Times and The Sunday Times

• Russell Brand accused of rape, sexual assaults and abuse
• How The Times and The Sunday Times investigated Russell Brand
• ‘I felt used and abused’ on Arthur: alleged Russell Brand victim speaks

New Journalist of the Year

Rafe Uddin — Financial Times

• Labour loses Muslim support over stance on Israel-Hamas ceasefire
• Reform UK’s unusual structure with Nigel Farage in the middle
• How Post Office lawyers pushed boundaries in UK sub-postmasters scandal

Sammy Gecsoyler — The Guardian

• ‘We’re going to see people dying on the streets’: homeless refugee crisis grips Liverpool
• ‘Rat bites and chronic asthma’: schools on frontline of UK housing crisis
• Met police agree six-figure payout to student hit by baton at protest

Kaf Okpattah — ITV News, ITV News London

• Whistleblower reveals corruption and collusion inside Wandsworth Prison
• The fraud scammers putting people out of pocket by cloning phone numbers

Simar Bajaj — The Guardian, New Scientist

• Everyone is on their phones. But is it really phone addiction we’re experiencing?
• The surprising mental health and brain benefits of weight-loss drugs
• He was shot in the throat. Now he saves gun victims as a trauma surgeon in Baltimore

Nimra Shahid — The Bureau of Investigative Journalism

• Santander arranged billion-dollar oil bond after making green pledge
• Santander weakened fossil fuel policy after raising billions for gas projects

Venetia Menzies — The Sunday Times

• Anxiety drug pregabalin killed my son — and hundreds more are dying from it
• The company taking refugees out of Gaza — and ‘making millions’
• After the earthquake: how Morocco is rebuilding

Oliver Marsden — The Sunday Times/Al Jazeera

• Hero taxi driver who saved scores from Hamas faces hatred from both sides
• Dodging Israeli rockets with Ghana’s UN peacekeepers
• Israeli strikes on Lebanon: Attacks are causing wildfires across south

Yasmin Rufo — BBC News

• London mayor election: Bots, misleading URLs cause voter confusion
• Ulez expansion: Contested claims examined
• Ulez: More than 300 cameras damaged or stolen in four months

Sports Journalism

Jacob Whitehead — The Athletic

• Special report: Newcastle United sponsor Noon and shocking allegations of worker mistreatment
• Saudi Arabia investigates worker mistreatment allegations after The Athletic report on Newcastle sponsor Noon
• Special report: ‘Disturbing’ safety issues at Hillsborough 35 years after disaster

Oliver Brown — The Telegraph

• Angela Carini was sent unforgivably into harm’s way by gutless IOC cowards
• After my grandfather hugged Jesse Owens, the Nazis told him: ‘Never embrace a black man again’
• Michael Vaughan: If I had gone through this racism ordeal at 80, I would have wanted to be shot

Simon Lock, Rob Davies, Jacob Steinberg — The Bureau of Investigative Journalism / The Guardian

• Abramovich’s hidden football deals during Chelsea’s time at the top (TBIJ) and Chelsea FC face new questions over how Roman Abramovich funded success (Guardian)
• ‘I worked for Abramovich?’: footballers were owned by oligarch via offshore deals (TBIJ) and Revealed: Abramovich, the super-agent and the footballers owned as ‘commodities’ (Guardian)
• Leaked documents reveal Abramovich is still connected to Vitesse (TBIJ) and Abramovich loans fund owner of Dutch football club, leaked documents suggest (Guardian)

Jacob Judah — 1843 magazine, The Economist

• The strange case of the disappearing football team

Riath Al-Samarrai — Daily Mail

• Drifting through life without gold medals, tortured by his past, and now claims of bankruptcy… How did petulant Wiggins fall so spectacularly from his golden bike?
• Seb Coe explains why he’s HAPPY to break 128 years of Olympic tradition by handing out cash for gold… and reveals Roman Abramovich’s unlikely role in athletics
• The curious case of Jade Jones’ drugs test and why the Chinese might be quick to ask questions, writes RIATH AL-SAMARRAI

Ian Herbert — Daily Mail

• Looting and rioting, setting fire to police officers and hunting down English fans… fearful European clubs are turning a blind eye to shadowy leaders of their untouchable ultras
• Thirty-five years after horror of the Hillsborough tragedy, Mail Sport can reveal that incredibly the stadium is still not fit for purpose with poor stewarding, inadequate turnstiles and a problem tunnel
• Grubby, classless, the five-year legal battle over plane crash victim Emiliano Sala takes us into football’s sewers… where players are pawns and chronically inept clubs desperately try to save cash

Matt Lawton — The Times

• Man City launch unprecedented legal action against Premier League
• ‘The horror is everywhere’ – inside Lord Coe’s secret trip to Ukraine
• Russian athletes should be allowed at Olympics, says government

Um-E-Aymen Babar — Sky Sports

• How does endometriosis affect women in sport?
• USA cricket teen on tackling social media trolls, South Asian heritage and 2028 Olympic goals
• Um-E-Aymen Babar ok Tiktok

Campaign of the Year

Caroline Wheeler —The Sunday Times: Bloody Disgrace

• Thousands dead, 40 years of cover-up: time for justice for infected blood victims
• At last: promise of £10bn payout for infected blood victims
• Jeremy Hunt: I promised a dying friend I’d end infected blood scandal

Patrick Butler, Josh Halliday, John Domokos — The Guardian: Unpaid Carers

• Carers threatened with prosecution over minor breaches of UK benefit rules
• ‘Injustice’: 92-year-old with dementia told by DWP to repay £7k in disability allowance
• I’m under attack and fighting back: the scandal trapping carers

Computer Weekly editorial team — Computer Weekly: Post Office Scandal

• Post Office Horizon scandal explained: Everything you need to know
• Fujitsu staff instructed how to bid for government contracts during self-imposed ban
• Post Office Horizon replacement project labelled ‘unachievable’ as taxpayer bill reaches £1bn

David Cohen — Evening Standard: Show Respect

• Boys, porn and the alarming way they talk about girls – a special investigation
• School pupils tell how they are victims of sexual harassment every day
• Show some respect: Standard launches campaign with £500k to tackle sexist abuse in schools

Lucie Heath — i: Save Britain’s Rivers

• Save Britain’s Rivers: i challenges all parties to commit to election manifesto
• Revealed: The hidden sewage spills damaging our national parks and beauty spots
• National Trust signs up to i’s Save Britain’s Rivers manifesto

Hanna Geissler, Giles Sheldrick — Daily Express: Give Us Our Last Rights

• My assisted dying petition proves Brits are compassionate – now Rishi Sunak must act
• ‘I’m terminally ill – assisted dying must be legalised so my daughter won’t see me suffer’
• Assisted dying debate must move on to how law will change, MND campaigner says

Amy Clare Martin — The Independent: IPP Jail Sentences

• Revealed: 16 years in prison for stealing a bike and no hope of release – as 7 trapped in jail kill themselves
• ‘He looked like a starving dog on the floor’: Prisoner trapped on indefinite jail term driven to hunger strike
• Father imprisoned for 12 years for stealing mobile phone under ‘cruel’ indefinite jail term reunited with son

Martin Bagot, Jason Beattie — Daily Mirror: Save NHS Dentistry

• Dentists warn ‘rescue plan’ will fail to end crisis as 60,000 people sign our petition
• Day in the life of a dentist – and why it’s nothing like you imagine as NHS nears collapse
• Britain’s dental health crisis exposed as hundreds of children in hospital with bad teeth

Photojournalism

Thomas Dworzak — 1843 magazine, The Economist

André Luís Alves — 1843 magazine, The Economist

Giles Clarke — CNN Digital

Nichole Sobecki — 1843 magazine, The Economist

Dimitris Legakis — Athena Picture Agency

Stefan Rousseau — PA Media

Hannah McKay — Reuters

Interviewer of the Year

Alice Thomson — The Times

• Ed Davey: ‘Being a carer is harder than being a politician’
• Peter Kyle: It was 5am. A woman said, ‘Your partner is dead ’
• Emma Barnett: ‘The pain was so bad, I was losing the will to live’

Christina Lamb — The Sunday Times

• ICC prosecutor: UK didn’t blitz the IRA — Israel needs that restraint
• The president’s daughter (and Instagram star) wanted by Interpol
• David Cameron: ‘Why did I take the job? Rishi Sunak asked!’

Laura Kuenssberg — Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, BBC News

• Baroness Mone and the PPE Scandal
• How Can We Protect Our Children Online?
• Inside No 11 with Chancellor Rachel Reeves

Charlotte Edwardes — The Guardian

• ‘You asked me questions I’ve never asked myself’: Keir Starmer’s most personal interview yet
• ‘Dismissing global warming? That was a joke’: Jeremy Clarkson on fury, farming and why he’s a changed man
• ‘The levels of attack are extraordinary’: Gary Lineker on punditry, podcasts – and why he won’t stop speaking his mind

Nick Ferrari — LBC

• Labour leader Keir Starmer joins Nick Ferrari to take your calls
• Champagne and caviar: Esther Rantzen reveals plans for final moments as she pushes for assisted dying law change
• Nigel Farage joins Nick Ferrari

Samantha Poling — BBC

• How I confronted Emma Caldwell’s killer
• Catching a Killer: The Murder of Emma Caldwell
• Who Killed Emma?

Piers Morgan — Piers Morgan Uncensored

• “Richard Gadd is PSYCHOTIC” Baby Reindeer’s ‘Real’ Martha Fiona Harvey
• Kevin Spacey Breaks Down As He Faces Debt Of MILLIONS
• Piers Morgan vs Rishi Sunak Round 2 | Prime Minister Discusses Israel-Hamas War, NHS, Rwanda & More

Paul Brand — ITV News

• Interview with Rishi Sunak
• Interview with Ed Davey
• Interview with Keir Starmer

(View all three interviews here)

Politics Journalism

Jim Pickard, Anna Gross — Financial Times

• Keir Starmer accepted £76,000 of freebies including tickets to over 20 football games
• Keir Starmer faces backlash over early failure to disclose £16,200 in donor-funded clothing
• Angela Rayner and Rachel Reeves declared clothing donations as office support

Pippa Crerar — The Guardian

• Kemi Badenoch accused of ‘bullying and traumatising’ staff
• Rishi Sunak aide placed bet on election date days before announcement
• Tories putting party reputation before sexual assault claim, says alleged victim

Rowena Mason, Henry Dyer, Matthew Weaver — The Guardian

• Biggest Tory donor said looking at Diane Abbott makes you ‘want to hate all black women’
• ‘No room for the Indians?’: Tory donor Frank Hester suggested staff climb on train roof
• Revealed: Sunak flown to Leeds for private tour of Frank Hester’s office weeks after £5m donation

Job Rabkin, Darshna Soni, Ed Gove, Saif Aledros, Georgina Lee, Lee Sorrell — Channel 4 News

• Undercover Inside Reform’s Campaign

Beth Rigby — Sky News

• Election exit poll
• The Battle for Number 10: A Sky News Leaders’ Special
• How Reform fares on Thursday will also determine the Conservatives fate

Caroline Wheeler — The Sunday Times

• Commons worker arrested after allegedly spying for China
• My MP husband Andrew Bridgen was captured by antivax ‘cult’
• At last: promise of £10bn payout for infected blood victims

Jane Merrick — i

• Thousands of disabled people died after ‘Covid treatment withheld’, inquiry to probe
• ‘My daughter was allowed to die of Covid because she had Down’s syndrome’
• Labour manifesto missing pensioners’ winter fuel and bus pass pledges

Steven Swinford — The Times

• Britain and US launch airstrikes on Houthi targets
• Jeremy Hunt looks for £9bn to balance his budget
• Teachers and nurses should get above-inflation pay rise, ministers told

Business, Finance and Economics Journalism, sponsored by Starling Bank

Simon Murphy — Daily Mirror & Sunday Mirror

• Fujitsu boss lives on ‘blood money’ with £2m mansion as we suffer, says Post Office victim
• Provider boasting of ‘compassion’ threatens daughter with court action over £50k care bill for her 93-year-old amputee mother with dementia
• Mirror tracks down former Post Office IT chief that Horizon inquiry insisted couldn’t be found

Ed Conway — Sky News

• Surge in sale of UK-made cars to Russia’s neighbours shows how it’s beating sanctions
• British firms’ exports are almost certainly bolstering Russia’s war machine in Ukraine, Sky data analysis finds
• How British financial services aid sale of Russian gas on European market | Ukraine War

Tom Bergin — Reuters

• Online-gambling giants conquer U.S. with tactics deemed too tough for Britain

Gill Plimmer, Robert Smith — Financial Times

• Chinese state banks are lenders to Thames Water’s parent company
• Thames Water owners pile group with debt
• Thames Water shareholders backed away over regulator’s debt demands

Siddharth Philip, Benedikt Kammel, Anthony Palazzo, Katharine Gemmell, Sabah Meddings — Bloomberg News

• Bogus Supplier of Jet-Engine Parts May Have Faked Employees Too
• Ghost in the Machine: How Fake Parts Infiltrated Airline Fleets
• UK Fraud Cops Make Arrest in Fake Airplane Parts Scandal

Anna Isaac, Alex Lawson — The Guardian

• Sellafield apologises after guilty plea over string of cybersecurity failings
• Nuclear Narnia: why is Sellafield Europe’s most dangerous industrial site?
• Sellafield nuclear site hacked by groups linked to Russia and China

Danny Fortson — The Sunday Times

• Mike Lynch: Flown to the US in chains, now he is free … and talking
• Inside Mike Lynch’s last stand as $11bn fraud trial looms
• The app that promised an NHS ‘revolution’ then went down in flames

Online Video Journalism

Alex Rothwell, Alastair Good, Yasmin Butt, Pauline Den Hartog Jager, Jack Feeney, Federica De Caria, Kasia Sobocinska, Stephanie Bosset — The Times and The Sunday Times

• Russell Brand accused of rape, sexual assaults and abuse | Investigation
• Undercover in a British prison: security flaws exposed | Times Investigation
• ‘Illegal’ conspiracy theory school exposed | Times Investigation

Andrew Harding — BBC News

• BBC tracks down smuggler behind Channel crossing which killed Sara, 7

Mohamed Ibrahim, Owen Pinnel, Mouna Ba, Wael El-Saadi, Feras Al Ajrami — BBC Eye Investigations

• Gaza 101: Emergency Rescue

Tom Pettifor, Matthew Young, Daniel Dove — Daily Mirror

• Has the man who killed Jill Dando finally been found?
• Jill Dando murder: Man wanted for questioning matches features of Serbian assassin
• Jill Dando murder: Key witness identifies Serbian assassin

Lucinda Herbert, Iain Lynn — National World Video

• Lured To Her Death: The Murder of Sasha Marsden

Reem Makhoul, Robert Leslie, Clancy Morgan, Amelia Kosciulek, Matilda Hay, Liz Kraker, Dorian Barranco, Barbara Corbellini Duarte, Erica Berenstein, Yasser Abu Wazna — Business Insider

• 4 Gazans show how war devastated their coastline

Piers Morgan — Piers Morgan Uncensored

• “Richard Gadd is PSYCHOTIC” Baby Reindeer’s ‘Real’ Martha Fiona Harvey

Ben Marino, Joe Sinclair, Veronica Kan-Dapaah, Petros Gioumpasis, Greg Bobillot — Financial Times

• Chinese brokers launder hundreds of millions for global crime groups | FT Film

Investigation of the Year

Scarlet Howes, Mike Hamilton, Alex West — The Sun

• Ex-BBC presenter Huw Edwards charged with making 37 indecent images of children, ‘shared on WhatsApp’
• Huw Edwards used position of power to groom young people for 6 years even sending pictures from BBC desk to impress them
• We’re still suffering, say parents at centre of Huw Edwards scandal as they slam BBC for lack of answers after he quits

Rosamund Urwin, Charlotte Wace, Paul Morgan-Bentley, Esella Hawkey, Imogen Wynell Mayow, Alice McShane, Florence Kennard, Ian Bendelow, Victoria Noble, Alistair Jackson, Sarah Wilson, Geraldine McKelvie — The Sunday Times, The Times, Hardcash Productions, Channel Four Dispatches Investigations Unit

• Russell Brand accused of rape, sexual assaults and abuse
• How The Times and The Sunday Times investigated Russell Brand
• Russell Brand: In Plain Sight

Alex Thomson, Nanette van der Laan — Channel 4 News

• Post Office Scandal

Paul Morgan-Bentley — The Times

• I worked undercover in one of UK’s most dangerous jails — without checks
• My son died in HMP Bedford. I never felt he was safe there
• Undercover in a British prison: security flaws exposed | Times Investigation

Ruth Evans, Oliver Newlan, Leo Telling, Sasha Hinde, Hayley Clarke, Karen Wightman — BBC Panorama

• Undercover School: Cruelty in the Classroom

Job Rabkin, Darshna Soni, Ed Gove, Saif Aledros, Georgina Lee, Lee Sorrell — Channel 4 News

• Undercover Inside Reform’s Campaign

Holly Bancroft, May Bulman, Monica C. Camacho, Fahim Abed — The Independent and Lighthouse Reports

• At last! Afghan special forces heroes set for sanctuary in UK after government U-turn
• MoD accused of burying admission that UK special forces had power over Afghan sanctuary claims
• Murdered, tortured or in hiding from the Taliban: The special forces abandoned by Britain

Daniel Hewitt, Imogen Barrer, Isabel Alderson-Blench, John Ray — ITV News: The Post Office Tapes

• New secret tape reveals top Post Office lawyer was warned of ‘wrongful’ convictions decade ago
• Secret tape shows Paula Vennells was told about problems with Horizon and warned not to cover it up
• Paula Vennells’ ‘smoking gun’ email reveals Post Office ‘cover-up’

Rowena Mason, Henry Dyer, Matthew Weaver — The Guardian

• Biggest Tory donor said looking at Diane Abbott makes you ‘want to hate all black women’
• No yawning or fingerprints on doors: the strict rules at Tory donor’s firm
• Revealed: Sunak flown to Leeds for private tour of Frank Hester’s office weeks after £5m donation

Samantha Poling, Eamon T. O Connor, Anton Ferrie, Shelley Jofre — BBC Disclosure

• Catching a Killer: The Murder of Emma Caldwell

Scoop of the Year

Russell Brand accused of rape, sexual assaults and abuse — The Sunday Times, The Times, Hardcash Productions and Channel 4 Dispatches

Huw Edwards Huw Edwards charged with making 37 indecent images of children, ‘shared on WhatsApp’ — The Sun

Naked photos sent in WhatsApp ‘phishing’ attacks on UK MPs and staff— Politico

No 10 pass for Labour donor who gave £500,000 — The Sunday Times

Labour will add 20% VAT to private school fees within first year of winning power — i

The Nottingham Attacks: A Search for Answers — BBC Panorama

Innovation

Harry Lewis-Irlam, Stephen Matthews, Darren Boyle, Rhodri Morgan — Mail Online: Deep Dive

• Anatomy of a loveless landslide: How Labour won on apathy and division
• Hour by hour, how D-Day unfolded…
• How China could seize Taiwan and spark WW3

Laura Dunn, Katie Lilley-Harris, Ellie Senior, Sherree Younger, Scott Nicholson, Jamie Mckerrow Maxwell — KL Magazine

• Rocky Bottoms
• Johnny Cave’s Asparagus
• Archangel Distilleries

Niels de Hoog, Antonio Voce, Elena Morresi, Manisha Ganguly, Ashley Kirk — The Guardian

• How war destroyed Gaza’s neighbourhoods – visual investigation

Alison Killing, Chris Miller, Peter Andringa, Chris Campbell, Sam Learner, Sam Joiner — Financial Times

• FT investigation finds Ukrainian children on Russian adoption sites

David Dubas-Fisher, Cullen Willis, Paul Gallagher, Richard Ault — Reach Data Unit

• DWP Cold Weather Payment postcode checker – map shows where households are due £25, £50 or £75 boost
• Enter postcodes in this map to see average house prices in your area
• Cheapest places in Greater Manchester to buy petrol as RAC issues fuel price warning

Gabriel Pogrund, Emanuele Midolo, Venetia Menzies, Darren Burchett, Narottam Medhora, Cecilia Tombesi — The Sunday Times

• The dead teenager, the lying suspect and the black box that proves it

The post British Journalism Awards 2024: Full list of this year’s finalists appeared first on Press Gazette.

Most UK national newspapers have voted Labour in the 2024 general election with several previously Conservative-supporting newspapers switching allegiance in their endorsements.

Update: Daily Mail gracious in defeat as Fleet Street reacts to Labour landslide

Previously Conservative-supporting titles, including The Sun, Sunday Times and Financial Times, have backed Labour in their leader columns.

The Daily Star, which has previously remained neutral, also called for change on its election day front page.

As with the 1997 general election (when Labour’s Tony Blair won a landslide) The Times has not endorsed any political party (then it urged readers to vote for candidates who were against further integration with the EU).

Nigel Farage’s Reform UK and the Liberal Democrats have received no national newspaper endorsements.

When all the circulations of UK-wide daily and Sunday newspapers are added up and collated according to election endorsements, the results show Fleet Street evenly split between Labour, Conservatives and Neutral/Don’t Know with 1.9 million in terms of newspaper circulation backing each position.

While more national newspapers have voted Labour than Conservative, the support of the top-selling Mail titles plus the Telegraph and Express titles mean in circulation terms the result is a dead heat.

When non UK-wide titles like City AM, the Evening Standard and Daily Record are included the balance is tipped in favour of Labour.

The Labour Party's 2024 general election newspaper (and one magazine) endorsements:

Daily Star: Labour/Count Binface

"It seems nailed on that Labour and Sir Keir Starmer will walk to victory.

"To be honest, all he has had to do is not completely balls things up like his rivals. But what is clear is that it is absolutely time for a change.

"We thought Count Binface was probably the best option but we're willing to give this other fella and his party a chance too."

The Sun: Labour

The day before the general election The Sun teased its election day front page, which declared: "As Britain goes to the polls, it's time for a new manager (and we don't mean sack Southgate)".

The paper also published its leader column laying out its position, saying that although Rishi Sunak "has many policies which we support" the Conservatives "have become a divided rabble, more interested in fighting themselves than running the country...

"Put bluntly, the Tories are exhausted. They need a period in Opposition to unite around a common set of principles."

The Murdoch-owned title rejected Nigel Farage's Reform UK, dubbing it "a one-man band which at best can win only a handful of MPs" despite policies which it said had "struck a chord with millions".

"There are still plenty of concerns about Labour," the paper said, including its plans on immigration and its failure to clarify its tax position, "but, by dragging his party back to the centre ground of British politics for the first time since Tony Blair was in No10, Sir Keir has won the right to take charge.

"We will hold Labour to account, without fear or favour. But we wish them every success."

As with other right-leaning titles, it marks the first time The Sun has endorsed the Labour Party since 2005, the last time the party was led by Tony Blair.

The Evening Standard: Labour

The Evening Standard, which backed the Conservative Party in the 2010, 2015, 2017 and 2019 elections, reversed course the day before the 2024 election and endorsed the Labour Party.

The London freesheet said Rishi Sunak "has turned out to be a disappointing Prime Minister" while Keir Starmer had "relentlessly reformed Labour from a party under investigation by the Equality and Human Rights Commission over its handling of antisemitism to a plausible alternative government".

The paper sounded a warning over the possibility of a so-called 'supermajority' for Labour, saying the UK "needs a serious, sensible, centre-Right alternative".

But it concluded: "Ultimately, after 14 years in office, the Tories have earned the right to lose. It is clear that this city wants change and that you have probably already made your mind up that Labour can be that change."

The Sunday Times: Labour

Condemning the record of the Conservatives, The Sunday Times said in its leader column: "The period since 2016 has been defined by political chaos that has fatally distracted the political class from those issues that matter most to voters — healthcare, schools and the economy.

"Britain now needs a radical reset. If the Tories are due a period in opposition, that can only mean a Labour government. Starmer should be praised for hauling his party back into the mainstream."

Financial Times: Labour

The Financial Times said in its leader column: "We believe in liberal democracy, free trade and private enterprise, and an open, outward-looking Britain…

"The Labour party of Sir Keir Starmer is better placed today to provide the leadership the country needs…

"Much of the country hankers for a fresh start. Labour should be given the opportunity to provide it."

The Independent

Despite its name, The Independent does go in for election endorsements and this time it has backed Labour.

The online-only title said: "Labour promises change and offers hope. In Rachel Reeves, Sir Keir will have a chancellor seen as sound on the economy, who promises to keep a steady hand on the wheel of the nation’s finances, after the wild lane-changing of the brief – but immensely damaging – tenure of Ms Truss and Mr Kwarteng. We hope their mantra will be to be compensatory and not too confiscatory."

The Observer: Labour

The Observer signalled its backing for Labour with a front-page editorial saying voters have "a historic opportunity to evict one of the worst governments this country has ever endured".

The Guardian: Labour

The Guardian has endorsed Labour again, after supporting Jeremy Corbyn through gritted teeth in 2019 while acknowledging his "obdurate handling of the antisemitism crisis".

This time The Guardian's backing was less equivocal. The leader column on Friday 29 June, for publication in its Saturday print edition (the biggest sale of the week), said: "Labour has climbed out of the crater of its 2019 defeat, and it stands on the brink of power with some eye-catching policies.

"On the environment, workers’ rights and housebuilding, it signals a break with the past, and a very welcome desire to save capitalism from its failures and excesses. Its most popular policies are interventionist: banning junk food and creating a publicly owned green energy company. How refreshing to hear that government programmes and stronger trade unions make economies more productive and equitable."

The Economist: Labour

The Economist endorsed the Labour Party on Thursday 27 June, marking its first endorsement of the party since 2005.

The magazine said Labour "is right in its diagnosis that nothing matters more than solving Britain’s stagnant productivity" and that Keir Starmer "deserves credit" for breaking with the policies of predecessor Jeremy Corbyn, but criticised the leader for running "a maddeningly cautious campaign".

It likened making a case for the Conservative Party's virtues to "a teacher struggling to say something nice about the class troublemaker", claiming: "Rishi Sunak is a better prime minister than Liz Truss, though if praise came any fainter it would be invisible."

On the Liberal Democrats, the magazine said "the logic that led us to endorse them in 2019 no longer holds". In 2019, it argued, the Lib Dems were the better option compared with "Boris Johnson's Brexit-obsessed Tories and Labour under Jeremy Corbyn, a hard-left charisma vacuum".

The Economist endorsed the Lib Dems in both the 2017 and 2019 elections and David Cameron's Tories in 2010 and (as a coalition with the Lib Dems) in 2015. It endorsed Tony Blair's Labour in 2001 and 2005 — but not 1997, when he won his first, landslide victory.

Daily Record: Labour

Scotland's Daily Record has announced it is asking its readers to vote Labour after not explicitly backing any single party at a general election since 2010 (when it also endorsed Labour).

It said in a major front page splash on Tuesday 25 June: "This election is not about independence. It's about poverty, spiralling mortgages, soaring bills, the cost of living crisis, a crashed economy, dodgy contracts, broken public services, a failed Brexit, Partygate. It's about kicking this vile and corrupt Conservative government out of office."

In a leader column, the Reach-owned Record said readers should vote tactically in some areas though: "The exceptions are the seats in the north-east and south of Scotland where the Tories and the SNP are in a two-horse race.

"Labour is not strong in these regions and a vote for the SNP is the best way to topple the Tories.

"This is particularly true in the Aberdeenshire North and Moray East seat where we hope the SNP candidate defeats Douglas Ross.

"But ultimately this General Election is not about the SNP. Many Scots continue to support independence but the election on July 4 will not deliver this political outcome."

Daily Mirror: Labour

The Daily Mirror declared itself early for Labour, writing in a "Voice of the Mirror" editorial published on Friday 24 May that "the new generation needs a Labour government more than ever".

The editorial, which accompanied an interview with Labour deputy leader Angela Rayner in Saturday's Mirror, said that "there are many reasons why we need Labour to win on July 4 but chief among them must be the chance to secure a better future for our children.

"As Angela Rayner tells the Mirror, most young people have only known life under the Tories. They deserved so much better. The Conservatives have stood by as more and more children are brought up in poverty.

"They didn’t recruit enough teachers and cut funds for one-to-one tuition and music lessons. Tens of thousands are being taught in buildings which are falling apart because they cancelled Labour’s rebuilding programme.

"And when Covid struck, Rishi Sunak refused funds to help kids catch up on lost learning. The Tories have robbed too many children of the chance to fulfil their potential. That’s why this generation needs a Labour government more than ever."

The Mirror is an avowedly Labour-leaning newspaper, disclosing on its website that it "has backed the Labour Party in every election since 1945".

Sunday Mirror: Labour

The Sunday Mirror said: "Britain deserves change after 14 years of chaotic Tory rule."

The Conservative Party's 2024 general election newspaper endorsements

Daily Telegraph: Conservative

The Telegraph's endorsement of the Conservatives was published online less than three hours after Sunak announced the election date on Wednesday 22 May.

The newspaper said: "The unarguable truth facing voters is that they face a straight choice between Sir Keir and Mr Sunak. It is similarly unarguable that a Labour government might well bring change, but it will not be of the good kind.

"Labour would tax more, regulate more, be weaker in defence of the national interest and be far more relaxed about mass migration and the excesses of green ideologues.

"The Tories can hardly claim that their own record is unblemished in any of these areas. But the party must now pull together behind the Prime Minister and hammer home the message that the situation will be much worse if Sir Keir enters No 10."

Although The Daily Telegraph's print front page the day after the announcement splashed on the pun "Things can only get wetter" in reference to Sunak's speech in the rain with the New Labour anthem "Things Can Only Get Better" blaring in the background, the front page analysis nonetheless maintained his "message came across loud and clear".

Election night 2024: How broadcasters plan to report results

Mail on Sunday: Conservative

The Mail on Sunday has given the Tories its full-throated support. Its last pre-election front page led with the headline: "Rishi warning: Starmer will wreck Britain in just 100 days".
In a full-page leader column, the title admitted the current Conservative government has been an "unsatisfactory and disappointing administration" but it said Labour would be "much worse" and so urged its readers to "vote Conservative on Thursday".

Sunday Express: Conservative

The Sunday Express led on Rishi Sunak's claim: "Starmer to 'wreck Britain in 100 days". Despite its previous strong back for Brexit, the title warned readers against voting Reform in a full-page leader column because "you will be helping Labour candidates".

It warned that a big majority for Keir Starmer would give him a "free rein to transform Britain into a socialist state, with higher taxes, more regulations and closer links to the European Union".

It said: "If you have any doubt he is the right person, the only sensible option is to vote Conservative"

Sunday Telegraph: Conservative

The Sunday Telegraph also gave its last pre-election front page to the Conservatives with the headline: Labour will bankrupt every generation, warns Sunak".

Its leader column focused on Labour's shortcomings, rather than Conservative achievements noting its "vindictive assault on private education", adding: "Labour is the party of cancellation, culture wars and decolonisation". It urged its readers to vote Conservative because Labour would be "dramatically worse" than the Tories.

Daily Express: Conservative

On election day the Daily Express published a full-throttle front-page (and online) backing of the Conservatives.

It said: "Today is a day of reckoning. The Conservative Party faces a punishing pounding at the ballot box. We believe Labour's unchecked power would diminish this great country of ours. Your frustration that not enough has been done to protect traditional Tory values is understandable. And it is, of course, your inalienable right to use your vote as a protest though the price might be very high. That is why we will continue carrying the torch of Conservatism until it is burning bright again. In the nation's interest we urge you to... vote Tory."

Other 2024 election endorsements

City AM: Anyone but the Conservatives

City AM said in its leader column: "...for now, it is hard to conclude anything other than this: this government is out of energy, out of ideas, and should, therefore, be out of office.

"Does this mean a full-throated endorsement of Keir Starmer’s Labour? That is, unfortunately, beyond us."

The Times: Don't know

In a leader article published just in time for the election, The Times said: "This newspaper wants the next government to succeed, and it will not be ungenerous in praise if that is the case. But Labour has yet to earn the trust of the British people."

Metro: Neutral

Metro's front page on 4 July was thoroughly neutral, with a graphic stating "Britain goes to the polls" and headline that "the nation decides" although the sub-head added: "But top Tory admits Labour 'likely to win'."

The website also played it straight although it had an ad takeover on election day from the Labour Party urging people to "vote Labour today".

The i: Neutral

DMGT-owned the i's front page on polling day made its neutrality clear, telling readers it is "over to you".

It said: "Only one UK national newspaper has never supported a political party - and never will. The i paper = politics without the spin."

And editor Oly Duff told readers: "No one gets an easy ride. Not the Tories, Labour or Nigel Farage. We are funded by readers [through subscriptions and newsstand sales], so we are free to investigate anyone we like. We are not in the pocket of any media owner or special interest, so we can tell you what’s really going on. That’s why we have one of the highest trust ratings in UK media."

The post General election 2024 endorsements: Most of Fleet Street votes Labour appeared first on Press Gazette.

The Daily Mail’s Saturday edition today sells almost double the number of copies than it does on the average weekday.

New Press Gazette analysis of ABC data shows the extent to which Saturday national newspaper sales have widened their gap over Monday to Friday sales over the past decade.

The Daily Mail‘s average Monday to Friday circulation was 1.5 million in February 2014 and its Saturday circulation was 58% higher on 2.4 million.

Nowadays the Mail’s Saturday circulation is 96% higher than its weekday paper, on 1.2 million and 607,914 respectively last month.

The Mail’s is the second widest gap: FT Weekend, published on a Saturday, had an average UK and Ireland circulation of 91,917 last month – 106% higher than the average 44,429 weekday circulation.

In 2014 the FT Weekend’s circulation was on 102,897 – 53% higher than its weekday edition.

The FT's average circulation in Press Gazette's monthly ABC table appears much higher (108,125 in February) because that figure includes global readership.

However ABC only shows the weekday versus weekend split for the UK and Ireland circulation of each newspaper so we have used this total only throughout this analysis.

All newspapers are more widely read on Saturdays than weekdays

In 2014 the Saturday editions at the Daily Star and the i were smaller than their weekday editions.

However today all seven of the national newspapers with publicly available ABC data (also including the Daily Mirror, Daily Express and Daily Record) are more widely read on a Saturday.

The i's Saturday circulation has gone from being 16% lower than its weekday edition in 2014 to being 49% higher. It relaunched as i weekend in 2017 and Saturday became its strongest day of the week a year later.

i weekend now sells 173,607 copies on average versus 116,481 for the weekday edition.

The Daily Star's Saturday edition was 11% lower than its weekday sales in 2014 but is now 3% higher (135,103 on Saturdays versus 130,932).

Sundays versus Saturdays newspaper circulation

The FT and i do not publish a Sunday edition, each instead selling the Saturday paper as one bumper weekend edition.

Similar to its weekday versus Saturday trend, the Daily Mail Saturday circulation is 99% higher than the Mail on Sunday. This gap has increased from 58% in 2014.

The Express has a smaller gap, with the Saturday circulation 55% higher than the Sunday Express. In 2014 the difference was 33%.

Saturday editions see slower rate of circulation decline

At all seven of the newspapers in our dataset, the Saturday editions have seen a slower rate of circulation decline than the weekdays - even if only just.

The narrowest gap was at the Daily Mirror, where the average weekday circulation has dropped by 75% in ten years and the average Saturday circulation is down 74%.

The biggest difference was at the i, where i weekend has declined 33% and the weekday newspaper has dropped by 62%.

The smallest decline on both weekdays and Saturdays was at the Financial Times, down 34% and 10% respectively over the past decade.

Press Gazette has previously reported that between the start of 2023 and 2024, average national newspaper weekday cover prices increased by 15%, compared to 12% rises for Saturday and Sunday editions.

What about the Guardian, Times, Sun and Telegraph?

Up-to-date comparisons are not available for The Guardian, The Times, The Sun and The Telegraph as they no longer make their circulation figures public through ABC.

However, this is how they stood at the point they each last published their data:

The Guardian traditionally skewed more towards Saturdays, with circulation 120% higher than on weekdays in February 2014 and 147% higher in July 2021, the most recent data available.

The Times bucked the trend of decline, with its Saturday circulation increasing by 4% between February 2014 and March 2020 and its weekday circulation falling by just 4%.

The post Widening gulf between weekday and Saturday UK newspaper sales revealed appeared first on Press Gazette.

Mail and Metro publisher DMG Media is rapidly expanding its audio portfolio after the arrival of head of podcasts Jamie East last summer.

In less than a year DMG Media has gone from just one podcast, its journalist-led hit The Trial of Lucy Letby, to having several audio products being produced and 19 in pre-production – mostly for the Mail but also for Metro.

East told Press Gazette: “I don’t know what everyone else is up to but… I doubt very much there’s any other company in the UK making that many podcasts.”

East joined the Mail, Metro, i and New Scientist publisher in August last year as head of podcasts and told Press Gazette he has been given “complete creative freedom, which is terrifying and wonderful”.

He created a strategy deck within his first month at the publisher “and everything is now being made,” he said.

Already live are several recent launches:

• Weekly football podcast It’s All Kicking Off, hosted by Mail Sport football editor Ian Ladyman and columnist Chris Sutton
• Straight to the Comments (no connection to an independent podcast of the same name), hosted by Youtubers Archie Manners and Joshua Pieters, alongside celebrity guests, who react to Mail Online comments
• The Sidebar, a showbiz podcast hosted by Good Morning Britain entertainment editor Richard Arnold with the name riffing on Mail Online’s well-known “sidebar of shame”
• New series Lost Voices with the first season about the last two men to be hanged in Britain for being gay and hosted by Labout MP Chris Bryant who wrote a book about them.

The Trial of Lucy Letby showed ‘what success can look like’

But The Daily Mail’s first podcast hit was The Trial of Lucy Letby, which launched before East arrived, running for more than 60 episodes until September and getting shortlisted in the podcast category at Press Gazette’s Future of Media Awards.

Unusually it produced daily updates about Letby’s trial as it was ongoing and grappled with the legal challenges that came with that, rather than reporting on a case retrospectively as true crime podcasts tend to do.

Under East it has since rebranded as The Trial and respawns for major cases that can be similarly followed live by the Mail’s journalists. So far it has covered the trial of the killer of Irish primary school teacher Ashling Murphy, the murders of teenager Brianna Ghey, and the latest is the ongoing case of Constance Marten and Mark Gordon in relation to the death of their baby.

East told Press Gazette The Trial has had about 23 million downloads so far and there’s another coming up in around five weeks “that no one will expect and it’s just incredible – it will blow people’s minds”.

He said he is “really proud” of how The Trial has been forged into a brand and created a “completely new sub-genre of true crime”.

Referring to the legal challenges, East said the fact DMG Media head of editorial legal Liz Hartley and her team “even entertained the thought of letting us do it is a miracle in itself”.

“No-one else could do that, with the exception of maybe The Times if they really wanted to… because there’s so much at stake with a trial like that in terms of being in contempt of court and whatnot, there’s no one else that could do it the way that we’ve done it at all.

“And it shows – we’ve kept almost all of the audience that we had from Lucy Letby over the following three seasons. We’ve got an incredibly loyal and engaged audience.”

The Trial showed the business “what success can look like,” East said, although he admitted: “It’s a slight anomaly, I did say not every single podcast is going to be the size of The Trial. I’d love them to be. The Trial is a juggernaut, it’s an absolute behemoth of a podcast.”

Lord Rothermere ‘walks the walk’ on building a 360-degree company

East said part of the attraction of joining DMG was starting its audio operation almost from scratch, including building a new studio, which opened in November, and hiring a team, which is now a core staff of five plus executive producers coming in for specific series.

East said he took the job “simply because they weren’t doing anything, or nothing with any deep roots.

“I’ve worked at different publishers before, and I’ve done work for Netflix and work for Sky and worked for big places before, and when you’re given a job like this you’re normally inheriting a lot of stuff, which is sometimes great but more often than not, not great.”

East previously ran his own production company, at which he launched and hosted daily news podcast The Smart 7. (He has stepped away but the podcast continues to sound like it is hosted by him thanks to AI trained on his archive of episodes.)

In that kind of job, East said, “your dream is to be able to realise all of your ideas creatively and from an organisational and from a tech point of view. What they did here was just allow me to come and do it.”

East specifically cited the vision of DMGT chairman Lord Rothermere, saying he is a rare media leader who “walks the walk” on evolving into a 360-degree company.

“What we’re allowed to do in this building is you literally can just walk over there and start making it happen… it’s about how we evolve the business, which is historically a print business and is already fast turning into a proper 360 business, whether it’s Tiktok, whether it’s long-form video, whether it’s short-form video, whether it’s audio, whether it’s digital, everything’s in the building, and being able to be the audio part of that puzzle is brilliant.

“I could immediately see where audio slotted in to the long-term plan of the business.”

[Read more: How Daily Mail went from voice of Middle England to Tiktok sensation]

The other benefit of being at DMG Media, East added, is that “there’s not an idea I could come up with in this building that I couldn’t find a home for.

“If I came up with a podcast idea that maybe didn’t align with the Mail so much, I’ve got Metro, I’ve got New Scientist, I’ve got i.”

Of his “complete creative freedom”, East said: “You wouldn’t get it anywhere [else]… I’ve worked for many different styles of publishers and media organisations, all of them like to think of themselves as ‘we nurture creativity’ and actually, this is one of the few places that actually has done that.”

Daily Mail 50+ readers ‘one of the most underserved’ in podcasts

One of East’s starting points was to use the Mail’s extensive data to look at what its readers like, with royals, showbiz and crime appearing to be obvious opportunities.

The key question was “what are they currently underserved in, in an audio world? The Daily Mail’s print readers are one of the most underserved sectors in podcasts and audio across the world. The 50-plus is the last great untapped market really with audio, with the exception of probably kids. So that’s an opportunity there.”

This is why The Sidebar and Straight to the Comments were first out of the gate: “Those two were quite easy to pull together because it was like, what is the low hanging fruit there? What can we make out of the content that we already create and already own and are already synonymous with that also allows us to be slightly meta, and also slightly unexpected?”

East agreed that the podcast market is “pretty saturated” right now but said it is “saturated with a lot of crap”.

“99% of all podcasts have less than 30 plays,” he said. “We are spoilt for choice when you go onto your Spotify or your Apple, there’s just thousands and thousands of them. But it doesn’t mean any of them are any good.

“And as I said before, it always starts off with a story. So if you’re telling a story in a different way, or in a new way, or you’re using your own platform to tell that story, such as Straight to the Comments or Sidebar. Then you’ve got a point of difference already.”

East was particularly critical of “podcasts that just have famous people on them for the sake of it, because I think that fad will die out pretty soon… I would say that that’s probably a saturated market, that there’s no room at the inn anymore for those kinds of things. So I’m looking ahead to what are people going to be wanting to listen to once they’re bored of those ones.”

As a publisher, DMG Media is “interested in ideas and stories, and IP ultimately”. This contrasts to “just getting someone well known and putting a microphone in front of them” which East said “doesn’t feel to me like a fully-formed idea”.

Showbiz does present a gap in the market, East said. He cited Goalhanger’s The Rest is Entertainment, hosted by TV presenter and author Richard Osman and British Journalism Award-winning Guardian columnist Marina Hyde, which can see them “talking about Ofcom. It’s completely different to Richard Arnold and [TOWIE star] Bobby Norris talking about Adele drinking champagne out of a shoe. There’s room for the two to coexist.”

East also cited true crime, which “hasn’t ebbed away at all, if anything it’s continued to grow, so it shows that there is room for more and more and more podcasts to coexist. Just because you like one podcast doesn’t preclude you from” listening to others, he said.

The Mail’s extensive archive of published and research material presents an opportunity both in true crime and other genres, he added.

“People like Stephen Wright, George Odling, Guy Adams, there’s some incredible journalism in this building. They have the biggest pool of archive that I’ve ever seen. So you bet your bottom dollar we’re looking at how we utilise that because the archive that DMG has is phenomenal.”

News podcasts ‘expensive and time consuming’

The other reason podcasts present an opportunity within the business is they are “completely passive” unlike newspapers, websites or videos for which “you have to literally stop what you’re doing and concentrate solely on that task”, East said.

“It allows us to access our readers and listeners and viewers… in ways that we haven’t been able to access them before,” he said, citing as examples when people are in the car, in the gym or on the dog walk.

Despite the opportunities overall East said he is “not at the stage where we’re looking at news podcasts, because they’re very expensive, they’re very time consuming, and it’s really saturated”.

East is working with Mail Metro Media chief revenue officer Dominic Williams on monetising the new podcasts but said there is “no dark arts to commercialising podcasts. It’s host reads, it’s sponsorships, it’s programmatic, it’s all of the above at the same time, and as many of them as possible”.

But he added: “You can’t commercialise podcasts until you’ve got growth, so we’re concentrating more on growth than commercials at the moment. But it’s healthy. We’re making money, because we’re doing 22 million downloads. So just as a by-product of having that size audience, you make money.”

East also has no immediate plans to put out full-length visualisations of DMG’s podcasts on Youtube, although the team does produce many social clips. “From a commercial point of view it’s pretty straightforward. You make far less money on Youtube than you do on Spotify,” he said.

“It’s as simple as that. The brass tacks of it is from a CPM point of view, it’s incredibly expensive to make video, and you don’t really make a lot of money from it. You have to achieve huge scale in order to do that. Whereas actually comparatively you can make a lot more with a lot less in audio. It’s a lot cheaper to make, and it’s a lot quicker to make.

“And if you’re great at making audio, it doesn’t mean that you’re great at making a video and vice versa. There are cases to be made for certain titles to be cross platform. But I haven’t got there yet. We’re still pretty young.”

Aim for podcasts to be ‘fully integrated’ into Mail publisher

Asked where he’d like audio at DMG to be in a year’s time, East said for it to be “fully integrated” into the business.

“I mean genuinely plugged in,” he said. “One of the big things that I’ve been working on since I started was how can we plug into Mail Online? That’s where our audience is. Global have their outdoor business, they have their radio business, we have Mail Online.”

As well as a podcast player on the website, East said they would want to be able to connect podcast episodes to relevant content in the Mail Online archive. “It’s about work smarter, not harder.”

There is also Mail+, the recently-launched partial paywall on Mail Online which sees readers charged £4.99 per month for up to 15 premium articles a day and a curated newsletter.

East cited Wondery, which gives paying users ad-free listening, exclusive episodes and early access to podcasts that will later be free to all, as a potential model to incorporate in future.

“Both podcasts and Mail+ are really in their infancy and I think both need to mature before we can use each other to the best of our abilities,” East said.

“So if I have five podcasts and they’re all number one hits, then there would be a really strong business case for putting ad-free versions on Mail+ or bonus versions on Mail+. Until I get there, there’s no point in creating that but that’s certainly in the back of our mind.”

In the meantime East is aware that not all of the upcoming releases will work – but said: “As long as my strike rate is good, that will make me happy.”

And he told publishers: “There’s no shame in cancelling podcasts and I wish more people did that. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with trying a podcast for three months and realising it’s not going to work, let’s just switch it off and try something else.”

Non-DMG podcasts admired by Jamie East:

• Reply All – East said “they made what I consider to be the best podcast episode of any genre ever”, The Case of the Missing Hit, “that for me crystallised everything that’s amazing about podcasts”
• Dissect– A “super nerdy” music podcast
• The Adam Buxton Podcast
• The Louis Theroux Podcast
• Some of the Goalhanger The Rest Is… titles
• Smartless – hosted by actors Jason Bateman, Sean Hayes, and Will Arnett, East said it is a “great example of that eavesdropping genre… when you can genuinely tell that people are friends it makes the world of difference”
• How To Fail With Elizabeth Day
• Unreal: A Critical History of Reality TV on BBC Sounds

See more podcast listening tips given to Press Gazette this month by Sky News political editor Beth Rigby here.

The post Daily Mail podcast chief Jamie East on publisher’s rapidly expanding audio empire appeared first on Press Gazette.

Mail publisher DMGT grew revenue in 2023 as a strong performance from UAE-headquartered B2B events division offset falling income at its UK consumer newsbrands.

Online advertising revenue from brands including Mail Online fell 3% year on year to £166m for the year to 30 September.

Print advertising is now DMGT’s smallest revenue stream after a 16% year-on-year decline.

Similarly The Guardian has reported overall advertising revenue down 16% year on year for the nine months to December.

DMGT owns the Mail titles, i, Metro and New Scientist. Mail Online has just introduced a partial paywall, while at the i digital subscriptions overtook print last year.

Overall it made a pre-tax loss of £12.6m on turnover up 2% to £997m.

But when one-off costs and accounting charges like “impairment of goodwill” are removed from the picture the group made an adjusted pre-tax profit of £41m.

Growth of £63m in revenue from events and exhibitions made up for a £33m drop in revenue from consumer media and a £7m fall in income from property information.

Circulation, excluding print subscriptions, remains the group’s biggest revenue source on £247m despite a 4% year-on-year decline.

Year-on-year comparisons are exacerbated by the 2022 financial year being a week longer (53 weeks) than 2023.

Consumer media revenue fell by 5%, primarily due to reduced advertising revenues, but remained the biggest part of the group on £624.5m, versus £210.3m for property information and £162.6m for events and exhibitions.

The property information division includes US-based data and analytics company Trepp and UK-based hybrid estate agency Yopa, for which DMGT increased its stake from 45% to 74% in January 2023 before fully consolidating it as a subsidiary.

DMGT’s events division is headquartered in the UAE and covers sectors including energy, construction, coatings, hospitality, leisure and interior design. Its biggest events the Abu Dhabi-based energy show ADIPEC, construction event Big 5 Dubai and Gastech in Singapore and overall it said they had continued to recover in both exhibitor demand and visitor attendance since the Covid-19 pandemic.

DMGT said it has five revenue types:

• “subscriptions, notably in the US property information business and within consumer media
• “circulation from sales of the paid-for newspapers
• “advertising in the consumer media products
• “events attendance and sponsorship revenues, notably exhibitor fees
• “and revenues dependent on transaction volumes, notably of UK properties.”

‘Challenging advertising market’ hits DMGT

In total across DMGT, 28%, or £275m, of all revenues came from advertising (print and digital), down from 31% in 2022.

Some 11%, or £108m, of group revenues came from print advertising (down from 13%) while 36% came from print advertising and circulation together (down from 40%) and 16% from events (up from 10%).

Chairman Lord Rothermere, who took DMGT private at the end of 2021 after 90 years on the London Stock Exchange, said of the consumer media titles in the company's annual report: "Advertising prices were adversely affected by circulation volumes, which continued to decline as expected, as well as by a challenging advertising market, due to pressure on UK consumers’ real disposable income."

He added that revenue from sales of the Mail titles and i newspaper benefitted from cover price increases largely offsetting declining circulation volumes and that this "reflected an increased preference to subscribe to the titles". He alluded to "growth in print subscription revenues".

Lord Rothermere went on: "There was continued inflationary pressure on costs, with a notable increase in the price of newsprint, and increased investment in US-related editorial content.

"Consequently, given the reduction in advertising revenues, the profitability of the consumer media portfolio was adversely affected during the year and the adjusted operating margin reduced to 6% from 8%."

The consumer media division made a statutory pre-tax loss of £32.5m but an adjusted pre-tax profit of £39.4m.

In common with many media companies, DMGT made some job cuts as part of digital and seven-day restructuring in 2023.

The report said: "The board continued to review the consumer media businesses during the year. Matters considered included the impact on consumers of the increased cost of living, the long-term market conditions and the future outlook for business performance.

"It was decided that a restructuring of consumer media was necessary to reduce the operational cost base whilst also investing in US expansion to protect and enhance future revenue generation. Although the board sought to ensure that employee roles were relocated where possible, unfortunately a number of redundancies were necessary."

The consumer media division is the biggest at DMGT by headcount, making up 62% of the company. It had 2,608 employees on average in 2023 - down 1% from the previous year.

The total remuneration of DMGT's highest-paid director (unnamed but likely to be either Lord Rothermere or chief executive Tim Collier) was £6.5m, down from £8.4m in 2022.

More than three quarters (78%) of group revenues were made in the UK and 8% from North America. A year earlier the UK was higher on 84% but North America was the same, meaning a boost elsewhere in the world.

The post Growth in B2B events income offsets consumer media decline at DMGT appeared first on Press Gazette.

The UK’s national newspapers in print now cost on average 13% more than they did one year ago after continued cover price increases.

The cover price on the newsstands of a daily newspaper grew by 15% on average between January 2023 and the start of January 2024. Saturday and Sunday newspapers were each up by an average of 12%.

By comparison, official consumer price inflation in the UK was at 4.2% in the year to November 2023.

Subscription costs for paywall news websites in the UK rose by 20% over the last year, Press Gazette research has found. Publishers may be seeking more reader revenue to make up for plunging online advertising revenue.

Online ad revenue fell last year for most news publishers as they have faced falling referral traffic from Google and Facebook and challenges charging a premium for advertising as tech platforms have increasingly supported anonymous browsing.

It would now cost £144.80 to buy a copy of every UK national newspaper on each day for one week, compared to £129.85 one year ago.

(Press Gazette’s comparison is for the main UK-wide national newspapers, excluding – for instance – the Scotland-based Sunday Mail and Daily Record).

In January 2014, before the closure of the print version of The Independent and The Independent on Sunday, the cost would have been £83.85, meaning a jump in price of 73% in a decade (including the extra cost of buying the now defunct Independent titles). This compares to a 32% in retail prices in the UK over that period (according to the Bank of England).

Several publishers most recently put up their prices to help mitigate continually rising production costs at the start of the New Year. DMGT’s Mail and i titles saw an increase from 30 December, Reach implemented price rises from 1 January and Guardian News and Media put up all its prices by 20p from 6 January.

The price increases also mitigate against falling circulation volumes as fewer copies are shifted on the newsstands. The newspapers that still publicly report their circulation with ABC saw an average decline of 69% between November 2013 and November 2023 (the latest figures available). The biggest circulation decline in that decade is the Sunday People, down 84%, with the smallest at the Financial Times, down 54%.

The biggest price rise in the past year in percentage terms was The Sun, up 25% from 80p to £1, followed by The Guardian and The Sunday Telegraph, both up 20% from £2.50 to £3.

In cash terms the biggest price increases were of 50p: at the Saturday edition of The Times, The Sunday Times, all editions of The Guardian and The Observer, and the Saturday and Sunday editions of The Telegraph.

The smallest percentage increase was at The Mail on Sunday, up 5% from £2 to £2.10, followed by The Daily Telegraph (from £2.80 to £3) and the i Weekend (from £1.50 to £1.60) both up 7%.

Other than the i Weekend, the smallest 10p rise also took place at the i’s weekday edition, all editions of the Mail, and the weekday Daily Star.

The most expensive newspapers have not changed since last year: the FT Weekend leads the way on £5.10 (up 6% from £4.80) followed by Saturday editions of The Guardian and The Daily Telegraph plus The Observer and The Sunday Times, all up 14% from £3.50 to £4.

The weekday editions of The Daily Star and the i are now the cheapest Fleet Street newspapers, at 90p each up 13% from 80p last year. The Sun saw a bigger growth from 80p to £1, putting it joint with the Daily Mail, which increased from 90p last year.

The FT Weekend remains the only UK newspaper to cost more than the average pint of draught lager (£4.69 in November). Every newspaper costs more than a pint of milk, according to average ONS price data.

On a weekday, it would cost £18.90 to buy every Fleet Street daily – The Times, Daily Telegraph, Guardian, the i, Financial Times, Daily Mail, Daily Express, Daily Mirror, The Sun and the Daily Star – from a newsagent, up 11% from £17 a year earlier. In 2014 the dailies (excluding The Independent which closed in 2016) together cost £9.20, meaning a rise in the past decade of 105%.

It would cost £26.60 to buy every Saturday edition of the national newspapers - The Times, The Guardian, The Telegraph, FT Weekend, i Weekend, Daily Mail, Daily Express, Daily Mirror, The Sun and the Daily Star - each week, up 12% from £23.75 last year. A decade ago the total price would be £13.05 (excluding The Independent), meaning the Saturdays have also doubled in price in ten years as a group.

It would cost £23.70 to buy every Sunday newspaper - The Sunday Times, The Observer, The Sunday Telegraph, The Mail on Sunday, Sunday Express, Sunday Mirror, Sunday People, The Sun on Sunday and the Daily Star Sunday - up 12% from £21.10 last year and up 70% in a decade from £14 (excluding The Independent on Sunday).

The table below shows all the data we used to show the cover prices between 2013 and 2024:

The post Newsflation: UK national newspaper cover prices up 13% in past year appeared first on Press Gazette.

Freelance journalist Ian Birrell has said challenges to the news industry emphasise the need for “strong journalists prepared to push the boat out” after winning the Public Service Journalism prize at the British Journalism Awards 2023.

Birrell, a former deputy editor-in-chief of The Independent who has written regularly for the Mail titles and the i in recent years, was honoured last week for his “incomparable” work on public interest investigations.

Birrell previously won the British Journalism Award for popular journalism in 2018 and was among the UK journalists honoured with the public service journalism award last year for reporting from Ukraine.

‘It does make me worry about the future of democracy’

The judges this year said Birrell “managed to shine new light on the untold stories” from Ukraine, “championed the rights” of same-sex coupled mothers in Italy, and showed “intellectual courage challenging orthodoxies around coverage of the Covid-19 pandemic“.

“His range is incredible and his ability to bring public interest investigative journalism to a mass audience incomparable,” they said.

Asked what he thought the judges had been attracted to in his work, Birrell said he had “no real idea, but it sounded like they were impressed by the range of stories I’m doing”.

Birrell was shortlisted in both the Comment Journalism and Features Journalism categories, receiving a commendation for the latter.

Three of the stories he was nominated for across the two categories covered the war in Ukraine.

Birrell told Press Gazette he often covers foreign stories, and “I personally always get very committed – I see my journalism as a sort of campaigning journalism rooted in human rights. And I think the story of Ukraine is the story of our age.

“It’s a country seeking democracy and freedom, seeking what we want, and I met a lot of people who just want to live like we do up against this horrible, repressive, nationalistic Russian dictatorship.”

[Read more: ‘When I had to stop, you guys carried on’ – Ukraine correspondents honoured at British Journalism Awards]

Birrell has been covering the war in Ukraine since 2014, long before the full-scale invasion which began in February 2022.

“I feel personally very committed to the Ukraine story,” he said. “I have a lot of friends there, it’s a country that means a lot to me. I arrived the day before the shootings in the Maidan. And then I’ve been there through the whole story with Crimea, the attacks in Donetsk, the shooting down of the airline there…

“So for me personally, I’ve been very committed to the story. In fact,” he said, pulling up his sleeve to reveal a small piece of steel on a loop, “this is a bracelet that I was given, which is the last bit of metal produced in the Azovstal factory in Mariupol, which actually has the Ukrainian insignia on it. That’s a gift I was given, and it’s a reminder to me of the importance of this conflict.”

There are fears that foreign support for Ukraine may be about to dry up. Speaking on Thursday, Birrell said he had just returned from the country and “I found that people are weary there. There’s a study showing that the average Ukrainian knows seven people in their friends or family who have either died or been seriously wounded.

“But I sense the determination is more extreme than ever. They are so angry at what Russia has done to them. But equally they’re aware that the appetite may be draining in the West and they may be left alone, so it’s a scary time for them.

“I hope the West remains committed, but time will tell if it is. If it’s not then it does make me worry about the future of democracy and the future of the West.”

Newspapers ‘need to surprise and challenge’ their readers

Given its association with social conservatism, some members of the public may be surprised to learn that a Mail title would be nominated for an award for a feature about a “heartbreaking crackdown against same-sex parents and surrogacy” by Italy’s “ultra-conservative” prime minister Giorgia Meloni.

However Birrell said the Mail has “always actually been slightly wider in its coverage of stories than it’s given credit for, [for example] famously the Stephen Lawrence stuff.

“For me, I’ve always found them open to good stories. A couple of years ago, I went to Poland to do a piece on the absurdity of the anti-gay movement there, where they declared villages were LGBT-free – so I went to one of these villages and talked to a gay person living there to show the absurdity of this…

“I think all papers actually do, or can, surprise, and it’s great they can. Personally I think it’s very important, as a former newspaper executive for 25 years.

“To me, I love surprising the readers, and I think if papers are too static and go too much into their bunkers, then that’s bad for journalism – it’s bad for public service journalism, but it’s also bad for the papers and their audiences. You need to surprise and challenge a little bit, as well as tickle what your readers want.”

Asked whether he had any broader messages for the journalism community, Birrell said: “Keep going. Difficult times, but everyone’s finding new ways. I’m fascinated to see all the niche journalism and the new ways of delivering journalism to readers.

“I think it’s both a scary time for journalists, particularly people of my age… But it’s also a really exciting time, and it’s time for entrepreneurial journalism, and I am still incredibly passionate about its importance in the world. And I hope that it will continue to play a really important role.

“Obviously there’s a lot of talk of disinformation, AI, all sorts of attacks on the so-called mainstream media. But I think that just makes it all the more important to have strong journalists who are prepared to push the boat out, prepared to challenge authority, prepared to take risks.”

He referred to his reporting on the possibility that the virus that causes Covid may have leaked from a laboratory in Wuhan, saying it had been “seen as a conspiracy theory” but is now within the mainstream.

“This is really what journalism is all about,” he said. “I hope there’s lots of room for it to continue.”

The post Ian Birrell says we need ‘strong journalists’ in ‘difficult times’ after Public Service Journalism win appeared first on Press Gazette.

Digital subscriptions revenue is forecast to be paying for most of the i’s editorial budget within four years, according to editor Oly Duff.

The i began introducing digital subscriptions around 20 months ago and reader revenue is proving to be a “healthy, sustainable model”, Duff told Press Gazette.

Digital subscriptions, which are now driving all commissioning and ideas at the i, overtook print subscriptions about three months ago. According to ABC digital editions now total 25,733 – giving i daily print and digital sales of 155,000.

Digital subscriptions revenue, which is "slightly ahead" of what was expected at this point, has begun overtaking the money made from online advertising.

This is alongside "thriving" print revenue that Duff "confidently" predicted would continue to see growth for years to come.

From metered to dynamic online paywall

The i's digital reader revenue strategy began with a simple unmetered paywall restricting access to some locked content such as subscriber-only newsletters. Since then, it has evolved into a dynamic paywall built on Piano's propensity modelling system which tracks user recency, frequency and volume.

"We're offering deeper reads here and we think it's fair to ask people to pay for it," Duff told Press Gazette.

The addition of digital subscriptions is adding to an already strong reader revenue base that in 2020 saw three-quarters of revenue come from newsstand sales, print subscriptions and the i's two apps.

"That strategy of digital subs is in its early stages but it's working despite the difficult economic backdrop in the UK and the fragmentation in the news industry," Duff said.

"It's working, basically, because we've got deep long-term investment in the quality of the journalism."

The i was bought by Lord Rothermere's DMGT, which also owns the Mail titles, Metro and New Scientist, in November 2019. It has always been profitable and, Duff said, this is forecast to continue.

Investment from DMGT has led to the i almost doubling the size of its editorial team from 85 to 150 since Duff last spoke to Press Gazette in October 2020.

Four owners in ten years

The i was launched as a cut-price sister digest title to The Independent on 26 October 2010 and is now on its fourth owner.

Duff, who was head of news on the paper's launch and has been editor since June 2013, admitted it had "not always been plain sailing".

The Independent's owner Evgeny Lebedev launched the i and Duff praised his "courage and imagination to launch a new UK newspaper.

"Obviously some rivals questioned his sanity, but he backed it with marketing when the future of it was 50/50."

But when Lebedev closed the print edition of The Independent in 2016 he decided to also sell the i, which at the time had a small team and not much resource to grow.

The next owner was Johnston Press, which also ran the likes of The Scotsman and The Yorkshire Post but had a "horrific pile of debt" (£220m by 2018). This period had ups and downs, Duff said.

"They recognised the potential for i, they kickstarted growth for i, they launched the website.

"The reality for everyone who worked for the business was that the debt was a big distraction. There was a millstone round everyone's necks and some really good long term plans could get overtaken by urgent short term needs."

After Johnston Press went into a pre-pack administration in 2018, it was bought by a consortium of its debt investors led by US hedge fund Goldentree Asset Management. Duff described this as a "tough time" and a "really weird hiatus".

"It's fair to say we haven't stayed in touch," he said of the i's third owner.

This experience has made Duff appreciate the ownership of DMGT, which has been in the news business for almost 130 years and, he said, is happy to take a long-term view.

"If you work for an organisation that makes short-term decisions, well, there are a lot of short-term headwinds out there and if that's the sort of organisation you work for, you're going to suffer, you may not survive, but certainly some of that healthy journalism won't survive."

Duff also said: "Some other owners, you get chucked into a brand soup - little distinctive content of your own, or less affinity or understanding of the individual brands, the audiences, the need to give those audiences what they want. Some media owners, as we've seen, are not necessarily the most stable organisations themselves.

"What we've had at DMGT is real editorial independence, investment in journalism, stable ownership and - a really big thing this - that deep understanding of distinct audiences."

Who are i readers and why do they subscribe?

The i has evolved beyond its original premise as a digest of the day's news. Now, Duff said, "you've got much deeper reporting, you've got more feature journalism, and so that's proved popular with our existing readers as well as to readers who come to us when they previously read, you know, The Times or The Guardian".

The i carried out subscriber research this summer, finding that politically the biggest group of i subscribers are in the centre, followed by left of centre, then centre right, then the left, according to Duff.

Most digital subscribers are under 40, while the average age in print is in the low to mid 50s. And the website is slightly male-dominated while Apple News, the i's biggest external platform, skews female.

In the UK, 85% of subscribers are outside London in print and 80% are outside the capital online. And overall 74% are in the UK with 10% in the US.

Duff said the research had confirmed i readers' two big priorities: quality columnists with a diversity of views, and a commitment to non-partisan and "no bullshit coverage" that nonetheless avoids the trap of "bland BBC balance".

The i is the only UK national newspaper that has never endorsed a political party - but Duff stressed this does not mean it is always "fence sitting like the BBC can be: 'on the one hand on the other'. If you give everyone an equal voice you could tie yourself up in knots."

Instead, he said: "We're going to hold all political parties to account. We're going to kick all of the shins. We're not friends with any of them. We're not interested in being popular in Westminster."

"Our readers trust us to tell it to them straight and the only way to do that is through real editorial independence, where you're free from political baggage," Duff added. "That is a weakness for quite a few of our rivals. And you're free from proprietorial influence as well - that's really important."

Duff said DMGT chairman Lord Rothermere, who took the business private in 2021, is "known for letting editors edit. He's done exactly that with i. I don't run our coverage past anyone. I never will. We don't need to... He just wants to know at the top level, what's the business strategy? Do you have the people you need to deliver it brilliantly, if not find them and then crack on with it.

"Some of his political views probably don't chime perfectly with the editorials in his newspapers, but I don't know because he's never imposed them on me."

The research, Duff said, found a market of 2.2 million people in the political centre "who are likely to take out a digital news subscription who value nonpartisan coverage and intelligent opinion and they aren't currently happy with what other newsbrands offer".

Subscribers come to the i's website for news, they discovered, and stay for opinion, lifestyle, culture and sport. The biggest rival for attention in the UK news market is the BBC "but there are some opportunities in areas of their coverage that the i does quite well on", Duff said.

He added that the research found Guardian readers also present a potential opportunity: "There's a perception The Guardian can be a bit of an echo chamber on the left, some of its coverage can be slightly biased. And this is not me saying this."

The i is shortlisted four times in this year's British Journalism Awards: columnist Ian Birrell in the Comment Journalism category, Jessie Hewitson and Callum Mason separately in Personal Finance, and freelance Phoebe Smith in part for work for the i in Travel Journalism.

Duff also highlighted some of the i's other journalists and recent stories, including:

• Dean Kirby's investigation into prepayment meters starting in December 2022
• The Save Britain's Rivers campaign alongside fellow DMGT title New Scientist
• Reporter Richard Holmes' investigation revealing an alleged Russian intelligence asset living in the UK whose family used a homes scheme for Ukrainian refugees to join him
• Housing correspondent Vicky Spratt's "peerless reporting" on the housing crisis
• Global affairs correspondent Molly Blackall who spent three weeks reporting from a ship rescuing migrants off the coast of Libya
• Special correspondent Patrick Strudwick's work on how World Cup hosts Qatar treat LGBT people and date rape drugs being advertised on Tiktok
• Opinion writers such as Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, Greg James, Emma Barnett and Susie Dent said to be particularly popular with subscribers
• As well as its politics, money, sport and science journalists.

Investment has 'halo effect' for i in print

Duff said the investment in "digital subscription journalism" has also led to a "halo effect" for the print edition, with revenues from the newspaper in turn helping "to fund our ambitions for digital subscription journalism".

The i had 23,935 print subscriptions in September, according to ABC - 19% of the total circulation of 129,133.

The iweekend Saturday edition had an average circulation of 174,308 in September, compared to 119,723 for the weekday edition. The iweekend has seen five months of month-on-month growth in 2023 so far while the i overall is seeing one of the most stable print circulations among UK national newspapers, according to Press Gazette's monthly analysis.

The i is the UK's cheapest national newspaper, selling for 80p on weekdays compared to 85p for the Daily Star, £1 for the Daily Mail, and £1.30 each for the Daily Mirror and Daily Express. On Saturdays, the iweekend is £1.50 while the Daily Mail and Daily Star are £1.40, Daily Express is £1.85, Daily Mirror is £2 and FT Weekend is £4.80.

Duff said they had kept the price of the i low because they are "grateful" for readers' support and they want to "insulate" them from rising newsprint and energy costs and the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic as much as possible.

"That comes back to the commercial resilience of the organisation we're in as well - that was a group-wide decision," he added. "And so hopefully we're seeing the loyalty of readers as a result of that as well."

Duff is bullish on the future of print despite its continuing industry-wide decline, saying people have predicted its end for decades already.

"Yeah, sure, the print market has shrunk. We all know that. We're living with the reality of that. But print is going to be around for a long time yet.

"I mean, let's be clear: it is tougher out there than it has ever been for some... it's pretty stormy if you're not in a safe harbour.

"We all know that some of the historic revenue streams at some publishers have been shrinking. But print is going to be around for a long time yet."

He acknowledged the growing fight for attention online, with young people no longer visiting publisher homepages and i editorial meetings discussing the "half-second window" in which they have to grab new readers' attention.

"Despite that, the reason that British national news media are succeeding where they are is because of great adaptability, great resilience, imagination, courage," he said.

Duff acknowledged that "at some point in the more distant future, yes probably some titles that are around today will be digital only" like The Independent in 2016.

"But that's not going to happen very quickly. The reality is that lots of quality news media publishers in the UK are successful hybrid publishers, they're rapidly growing reader revenue at the same time as having successful print audiences who are willing to pay for that experience."

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