Daily Record sales dip as industry see circulation drop

Sales of the Daily Record fell below 300,000, according to figures for last month

Sales of the Daily Record have fallen below 300,000 for the first time, according to figures for December.

Circulation across the whole Scottish market declined in 2010, with national daily titles seeing an average drop in sales of 6%, while Sundays dropped 7%.

Among the titles to experience the biggest decline were the Scotsman, down 8%, and the Herald which fell by 7%.

The News of the World also saw its circulation fall by 37,000 to 261,000 during the year.

In December, the Daily Record's circulation declined sharply, down 4.2% to 290,000 for the month.

All but 12,000 editions of the paper were sold in Scotland.

The Scottish Sun continued to lead the market, with sales of 315,000.

The Herald had an average daily sales total of 53,000 in the last six months of 2010.

Over the same period, The Scotsman dropped to 43,300, with the Sunday Mail, Sunday Post and Scotland on Sunday all down by just over 7%.

The Sunday Herald was down only 2% at 42,000. It relaunched in a different format last week in a bid to raise its low circulation.

The only national paper to put on sales in Scotland in the final six months of the year was the Mail on Sunday, while the Daily Mail in Scotland saw a fall of 1% to 115,000.

BBC Scotland's business and economy editor Douglas Fraser looks at the future of the country's newspaper industry during Radio Scotland's The Business Show.

The programme will be broadcast at 1005 GMT on Sunday and can be listened to again on the BBC's iplayer. A podcast of the show will also be available after broadcast.