Observer is Sunday best

The Observer made further circulation gains in March, making it the only Sunday newspaper to record a year-on-year rise last month.

Guardian News & Media's Sunday title was up 1.3% year on year to sell an average of 461,739 copies each day in March, according to the latest Audit Bureau of Circulations figures published today. GNM also publishes MediaGuardian.co.uk.

Despite the year-on-year circulation rise, the Observer, which gave away a Sheltering Sky DVD, a "Book of the Earth", and a poetry booklet over the course of the month, was down 0.49% on February.

Last month the Observer printed 36,553 copies of its Europe edition and distributed an average of 28,869 bulks - copies sold for a nominal fee to gyms and hotels but given away free to the reader. Its full-rate sale represented 84.3% of the total.

Headline sales of the Independent on Sunday last month dipped by 2.9% year on year to 221,698, down 2.8% on February. Bulk giveaways of the paper accounted for 39,804 copies each weekend on average, with full-rate sales making up 51% of the total.

The Sunday Telegraph fell 2.6% year on year to 625,549, also down on February, by 1.2%.

More than half of the paper's headline sales figure in the UK and the Republic of Ireland came from pre-paid subscriptions, and bulks accounted for 69,288 copies. Just 33.6% of the paper's sales were at full rate last month.

News International's market leading Sunday Times sold an average of 1,206,517 copies in March, down 2.5% year on year and up an average of 270 copies – or 0.02% - on February.

Full-rate sales of the Sunday Times in the UK and the Republic of Ireland were 965,459, 80% of the total, while there were 22,566 bulks and 97,476 pre-paid subscriptions.

Chris Tryhorn
guardian.co.uk