Posted on 06/11/2004 7:07:35 PM PDT by Pikamax
Mirror pays price for fake pictures
Owen Gibson, chief reporter Friday June 11, 2004
Mirror: sliding further away from 2 million barrier
The scandal over the fake Iraq torture pictures appears to have cost the Daily Mirror more sales, with the paper's average daily circulation falling by a further 40,000 in the past month, according to the latest ABC figures. The search continues for a new Mirror editor following the sacking of Piers Morgan at the end of the month, but the challenge to get the newspaper's circulation back above the psychologically important 2 million barrier - is getting more difficult by the month, after the Mirror's sales dropped 2.2% in May to 1,846,734.
Despite initially standing by their editor, pressure from the government and the army eventually forced the Trinity Mirror chief executive, Sly Bailey, and chairman Sir Victor Blank to end Morgan's reign as editor.
Now insiders are claiming the fake picture row, which ran for three weeks in May, was directly linked to the downturn in circulation.
One said today readers "ran away" as the story dragged on throughout the month, and were turned off by the newspaper's defence of its decision to publish the pictures.
Caretaker editor Des Kelly, one of 14 internal and external applicants for the editor's job following the ousting of Morgan, has since moved to steady sales after taking over on May 21.
Kelly's drive to replace the foreign news stories and scoops of the Morgan era with a more populist mix is believed to have slowed the sales slump, although today's figures show the tabloid has lost 6% of its sales in the past year.
The continued decline of sales was a constant worry for Morgan too - many pointed out that circulation last year fell 100,000 despite a series of high-profile scoops including Paul Burrell's story and Ryan Parry's expose of what really happens in the Royal household.
The circulation of the Mirror's tabloid rival, the Sun, rose marginally last month to 3,360,662.
However, the News International title has also lost readers over the past year, with circulation down 4.6% compared with May 2003.
All the tabloids will hope for a sales boost from football's Euro 2004 championships, particularly if England do well.
According to the latest ABC figures, the Guardian has also started to win back some of the ground lost since the Independent converted to a tabloid format.
The Guardian, buoyed by healthy sales for Saturday issues featuring free CDs and supplements on chemical additives, boosted its circulation by 2.1% month on month to 389,400.
However, sales of the paper remain 1.8% down on May last year.
Today figures from the Audit Bureau of Circulations, which include free giveaways, also offered further evidence that the sales spurt enjoyed by the Independent following its shift to a tabloid format is slowing.
Despite ditching the broadsheet version of the paper altogether last month, the paper added under 1,000 extra sales compared with April.
However, the Independent's conversion to tabloid can still be considered a resounding success overall, with sales up 17.2% on May last year to 261,009.
The case for the launch of a tabloid version of the Times, estimated to have cost at least £10m in extra printing and marketing spend alone, remains far less clear cut.
May's ABC figures show circulation of the Times was marginally down on the previous month, at 652,264.
The introduction of the tabloid Times, which is now available nationally alongside the broadsheet edition, has arrested the paper's downward circulation trend.
But it has proved less popular with readers than the Independent's switch to a smaller size.
Sales of the Times are up just 2.3%, year on year, despite the extra investment in the twin editions.
At the quality end of the Sunday market, the Sunday Telegraph was the only title to record even a marginal rise in sales during May.
The Sunday Telegraph sold an extra 1,041 copies on average last month while in contrast the circulation of the Sunday Times dropped 4.4% to 1,330,743.
Despite a monthly fall, the Observer remains the only Sunday broadsheet to record a circulation rise compared with last year, selling an average of 445,943 copies each weekend during May.
The LA Times is next.
Maybe if they reported the important things that are happening in the world people would read their paper again.
Damn, ya just beat me to it.
One can only hope that the New York & LA Slimes will be next.
The lower their circulation goes the more outrageous the articles will become. It's going to be fun to watch the newspaper business shrink.
It's going to be fun to watch the newspaper business shrink.
It shrinks?
The Sun has been playing to British patriotism, while the Mirror has basically been undermining the UK. It's cheering to learn that treason doesn't pay. That seems to be the case in the U.S., too, but these lousy media liars sure take a long time to die.
Until they figure out how to charge us for every word we read, print media will shrink.
Every time I've read an "article" from that rag, I could have sworn it was an excerpt from the Workers' World Daily or some other Marxist, hard left publication not fit for wiping one's backside with.
I hope it gets bought out by Rupert Murdoch. Heh heh heh...
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