How is the Sunday Times really doing?

POLITICSWEB: Advertisers may not mind that decreasing numbers of individuals are actually buying the Sunday Times, as long as it maintains its overall readership. A large proportion of the newspaper's ‘third party bulk' sales end up being handed out at tollgates - thereby ensuring that the paper still is properly distributed and reaches a relatively high LSM.

According to the latest All Media and Product Survey (AMPS) figures the Sunday Times had a readership of 3,9m adults (over the age of sixteen) in 2008 up from 3,56m in 2006/2007.

Nonetheless, the determination of the Sunday Times' to always hit the "magic number" may prove to be a poisoned chalice for the newspaper. In particular, one wonders whether the proven ability of the circulation department to keep total circulation stable has not allowed a certain complacency to creep in on the editorial side of things.

Why bother too much about the quality of content when the wizards at circulation can always be relied upon to make up for any shortfall in individual sales?

SHOOT: According to these figures, ST must be the only newspaper in the world that is unaffected by the recession and the internet. Quite an achievement.

clipped from www.politicsweb.co.za JOHANNESBURG - "Nothing in this world can be said to be certain," Benjamin Franklin famously observed, "except death and taxes." To this select list one could perhaps add the circulation figures of South Africa's largest Sunday paper. The news cycle will turn, presidents may fall, but of one thing you can be sure: No matter what happens, the circulation of the Sunday Times will remain fixed at around 504 200.  The question, then, is how is the Sunday Times really doing? The newspaper's massive subscriber base has remained stable since early 2008. But, if one just takes the ‘pulse' of the publication, then single copy sales within South Africa are down from 300,595 in the fourth quarter of 2007, to 245,186 in the second quarter of 2009. This means, in effect, that the Sunday Times is becoming increasingly dependent on ‘third party bulk' sales and PMIE to top up its circulation and keep it at the 504 200 level.