This document compares print newspaper circulation figures from January 2000 to January 2019 in the UK. It shows that all major newspapers have seen declines in print circulation ranging from 18% to 58% over this period. The steepest declines were in red-top tabloids such as The Sun, Daily Mirror, and Daily Star. Some newspapers like The Independent no longer have print editions. The general trend is an overall decline in print newspaper circulation.

1. Version 1 1 © OCR 2019
Component 01: News and Online Media
Learner resource 1
Media Industries, theories and contexts
Activity 1 – researching the decline in print
newspaper circulations
Research the decline in print newspaper circulations: Compare the current figures (e.g. from
Wikipedia( search terms: (2019) List of newspapers in the United Kingdom by circulation,
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_newspapers_in_the_United_Kingdom_by_circulation) with the
table below:
Average Daily Print
Circulation for National
Newspapers for
January 2000, in
millions
January 2019, in
millions
% decline
The Sun 3.6 1.4 53%
Daily Mail 2.4 1.2 41%
Daily Mirror 2.3 0.5 58%
The Daily Telegraph 1.0 0.3 48%
Daily Star 0.5 0.3 58%
Daily Express 1.1 0.3 52%
The Times 0.7 0.4 18%
Financial Times 0.4 0.2 54%
The Guardian 0.4
The Independent 0.2

2. Version 1 2 © OCR 2019
Component 01: News and Online Media
1. Which newspaper(s) no longer has print editions?
2. Which new national newspapers have been founded?
3. What is the general trend in newspaper circulation?
4. Which genre of newspaper has had the steepest decline – the red-top tabloids, the
middle-market newspapers, or the broadsheets?