[A-List] UK news media: Herald newspapers & consolidation

["Michael Keaney" <michael.keaney@xxxxxx>]

Paper challengers eye up pedigree stables

The latest ABC figures, says Kenny Kemp, cast an interesting light on the
battle for this paper and her sisters
The Sunday Herald, 10 November 2002

WITH some of Scotland's daily and Sunday newspaper titles on the brink of a
sale, a snapshot of the audited circulations gives a clear indication of
what is at stake.

The widespread interest in SMG's titles -- The Herald, Sunday Herald and
Evening Times, which are now down to a shortlist of bidders -- has shown
that strong circulation figures can be turned into revenues.

But a look at the circulation performance of The Scotsmand and Scotland On
Sunday, part of one group bidding for the titles, shows why the Barclay
brothers are desperate to get their hands on the Glasgow-based papers,
although a Competition Commission ref erral looks certain.

According to the October sales figures from the Audit Bureau of Circulations
(ABC), The Scotsman's circulation fell again, by 6.68% to 74,341. This
represents a 12.5% drop since Andrew Neil took the helm in October 1997,
when sales were at 84,962. More alarmingly, the full-rate sale is 66,805.

This is in spite of a marketing and cut-price campaign that has cost the
Edinburgh-based group more than £6m. Within the Barclays stable, the tactic
of halving The Business's price to 50p has helped it achieve a 49.28% rise
to 89,991, though its Scottish sale is under 2000.

Its stablemate Scotland On Sunday fell 5.21% to 86,627, against 120,830 in
1997. That was before the launch of the Sunday Herald in February 1999.
SMG's internally-audited figures put The Herald down 5.77% at 87,414 while
the Sunday Herald rose from 58,582 last year to 61,145, The Daily Record
fell by 10.63% to 534,104.

In the national arena the Daily Star continues to defy market gravity,
selling 749,093, up 21.09%. But it is still some way behind The Sun and the
Mirror. The Sun, at 3,612,464 with a 4.60% rise over last year's figures,
performed well in its clash with the Mirror, which dropped 5.34% to
2,095,125. It is still too early to determine whether the Mirror's exclusive
buy-in of Princess Diana's butler, Paul Burrell, will cause a major increase
in sales. Meanwhile the Daily Express has made a slight recovery, mainly
through the use of bulk sales.

In the London-based broadsheet market The Times, the Daily Telegraph, The
Guardian and The Independent each dropped 5-6%, with the Daily Telegraph now
consistently dropping below its magic figure of 1m. In the Sunday market the
Independent On Sunday's decline in sales continued unabated, while the
Sunday Times dropped 3% to 1,398,414. Only the Sunday Express made any
improvement.