ABCs: Daily Star only year-on-year riser

The Daily Star was the only national paper to record a year-on-year circulation rise, while the Sun moved back above 3m in January, according to the Audit Bureau of Circulations. Richard Desmond's Star continued its run of year-on-year increases following its price cut to 20p in November 2008. It managed a rise of 1.41% on January to a daily average of 779,376 on the back of an 8.17% rise in December. In a January affected by severe snow, which created a strong interest in news but played havoc with distribution, the Sun rose 5.02% in January, helped by its holidays promotion, to sell a daily average of 3,006,565. But its year-on-year decline was 4.43%. The Daily Mail rose 0.34% on December to sell a daily average of 2,120,347. It promoted a series of Agatha Christie DVDs but was 3.64% down on the year, reversing its year-on-year gain in December. No newspaper apart from the Star recorded a year-on-year rise and the average daily net circulation of all daily newspaper was 10,303,648, down 7.05% on the year. The tabloid market fell faster year on year than the middle-market: a fall of 5.46% compared with 4.83%. Traditionally all newspapers experience a month-on-month increase in January after readers return from Christmas breaks but this year only the Sun and Daily Mail managed to do so. Trinity Mirror's Daily Mirror widened its year-on-year falls from December, with a 10.86% fall to 1,218,425 in January. This was a fall of 0.58% on the month. Richard Desmond's Daily Express was down 8.6% year on year to 674,640, a fall of 0.46% on December. • To contact the MediaGuardian news desk email [email protected] or phone 020 3353 3857. For all other inquiries please call the main Guardian switchboard on 020 3353 2000. • If you are writing a comment for publication, please mark clearly "for publication".