It’s the final ABC of 2018 and allow as us to access how the last half of the year have fared for the print brands. December is down 2% on the month and 10% on December 2018 with the morning market doing marginally better than the Sunday. The tabloids had a decent month with most of them opting to exclude their sales from 24th to 28th – which is perfectly legitimate.
We have to wait until the 21st of February for the release of the ‘Island of Ireland’ report, but I suspect that the figures will be poor. When the ABC released the June ABC (2018) I looked at the select titles here* and they were showing a decline of 8% year on year.
When the ‘Island of Ireland’ was released (August 2018) it showed that the total market had contracted by 8%! So, the monthly ABC’s are a decent bellwether for the overall market.
Looking at the year on year for the titles that are audited monthly, it shows that they are down 10% on the year. If history repeats itself, the newspaper market here is in for a double-digit decline year on year.
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