NDM stories 8/12/13

Daily Mail overtakes Sun as biggest-selling Saturday paper

News UK red-top outsold by rival by more than 20,000 copies in November, but remains the UK's top-selling title across six days

In November, the Daily Mail overtook The sun in order to become the U.K.'s best-selling paper for the first time. The sun is still however the UK's best-selling paper and remains as this, selling daily across six days. It has been the U.K's best selling since overtaking the daily mirror in 1978. 

• In November the Saturday edition of the Daily Mail had An average headline circulation of 2,474,43
• ...whereas The Sun's average headline circulation was 2,453,981
• Finally, across six days; Monday to Saturday; the Sun averaged 2,089,752 copies, against the Daily Mail's 1,755,308.

"While we have out sold the Sun on Saturdays previously, this is the first time we have achieved better sales over the course month," said Roland Agambar, chief marketing officer for Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday publisher DMG Media.

In terms of newspapers, they seem to still be in competition with one another as none of the media producers want to go out of business. Everything is now available online and the fact that there is a price tag placed on the Sun and other papers does mean that a lot of people are going to not pay for newspapers and subscriptions to them as there are opportunities to access news for free. 

News UK is reborn by putting a digital smile on Wapping's face

News UK may only be a change of name from News International but the whole "feel" of the organisation is somehow different. Perhaps it's the digital age that has transformed the outfit from rugged to smooth, from frantic to measured, from wayward to way to go. This is because of the way that new and digital technology us changing the way new is presented and viewed by the general public. Furthermore the top spot belongs, of course, to Rupert Murdoch who owns the organisation. After all, News UK had to clean up its act in the wake of the hacking saga and related dramas.

And it is not going to be easy. Despite the up-beat presentation we were treated to at News UK, there is a consistent concern about this period of transition from print to screen. News UK has taken a giant gamble on putting its content behind a paywall (a banned word at at the company but I'm willing to pay the 50p fine they impose on users of the word).