The Observer leads Sunday circulation falls

The paper's average weekly circulation slipped 19.38% year-on-year and 4.85% month-on-month to 366,918.

In August, Media Week revealed GMG was gearing up to stop distributing bulk copies of The Guardian and The Observer from September, resulting in about 20,000 fewer copies of its Sunday title in circulation.

Since September, circulation for The Observer has dropped an additional 18,699.

This week it emerged that Guardian News & Media is to close several of The Observer’s monthly magazines and move some of its separate sections in to the main paper, and cut more than 100 jobs to try to alleviate losses of at £100,000 a day.

Northern & Shell’s 90p Daily Star Sunday and Newsquest’s Scottish title the Sunday Herald were the only Sunday titles to increase its circulation year on year in October.

Daily Star Sunday posted a circulation of 364,667, up 2.95% year on year, but down 5.18% month on month.

The Sunday Herald saw its circulation rise modestly to 43,454, up 0.14% year on year and 1.44% month on month.

The News of the World retained its position as the biggest British newspaper recording a circulation of 3.06 million, down 2.36% year-on-year and 2.06% month on month.

The Sunday Mirror’s circulation was 1.21 million, down 6.36% year on year and 1.2% month on month.

The People’s circulation was 552,163, down 10.16% year on year and 2.08% month on month. The Scotland-focused Sunday Mail’s circulation was 416,634, down 10.05% year on year, but up 0.66% month on month.

Of the mid-market titles, Northern & Shell’s Sunday Express dropped the most year on year; it posted a circulation of 614,040, down 8.27% year on year but only 0.81% month on month.

The Mail on Sunday’s circulation was 2.12 million, down 3.43% year on year but up the greatest percentage month-on-month with a rise of 5.14% from September.