The Sun newspaper climbs above three million circulation in ABC report

While newspaper circulations do typically rise between December and January, as people return to work from the festive break, the increases will still boost the newspaper industry at a time when it is battling a deteriorating ad market.

News International was on alert last month when The Sun dipped below the three-million sales barrier - which is widely viewed as key for The Sun in its sell to agencies and clients. However, thanks to an 8.5% circulation rise from December, it averaged 3,146,006 circulation in January, a month when it ran its popular "Holidays for £9.50" promotion.

Circulation for all weekday red-top newspapers fell year on year, with the exception of the Daily Star, which continues to benefit from its 20p cover price, posting a circulation of 768,534 copies. It cut its cover price from 35p to 20p on 5 November.

The Independent continues to lose more circulation than any other quality weekday newspaper year on year, shedding 14% of circulation to 215,504 copies. However, the title will be encouraged by its increase between December and January, of 7.6%, which was more than any other UK newspaper, quality, mid-market or tabloid, bar The Sun.

The Times posted the smallest year-on-year circulation fall of any quality weekday title, down 2.56% to 617,483 copies. Among all weekday papers, The Times' year-on-year performance was bettered only by The Sun, which shed just 1.99% of circulation. Both The Guardian, down 5.17% to 358,944 copies and The Daily Telegraph, down 5.3% to 842,912 copies, suffered similar year-on-year declines in circulation.

ABC year-on-year comparison figures compare the average circulation in the six months leading to January 2009 with the same period until January 2008.