NST drops to 73,000, B.Minggu loses 30% (ABC sneak peek)

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ADVANCE LOOK at some ABC figures for 2010

report and graphics by uppercaise

• NST sells only 73,000 on the street
• Berita Minggu loses 90,000 copies over three years

These charts are based on figures from the Audit Bureau of Circulation report for July-December 2010 newspaper sales. An image of an advance report to publishers was emailed anonymously to this blog. I have not seen the full report myself, but the image looks genuine enough — and the report will be out soon anyway. (ABC compiles and audits newspaper circulation figures.)

Sales of all four traditional titles are in decline
• Berita Minggu dropped 30% drop since 2007;
• New Straits Times lost 26%
• Berita Harian and New Sunday Times both fell by 22%

NST sells only 73,000 on the street

The figures I was shown do not include bulk sales — copies sold in bulk to corporate sponsors who give the copies to schools, or sales to hotels and other organisations, all at the wholesale rate. Of all newspapers, the NST depends on bulk sales the most. The official ABC figures for 2009 show that bulk sales made up 26% of NST circulation — 28,000 copies.

If bulk sales remained unchanged at 28,000 then the NST managed only 73,000 in open sales. Sad.

• The ‘good’ news: Metro is soaring ahead

The two Metro titles are now far ahead of the pack and the senior titles seem to be in terminal decline.

» The 2009 report, for comparison…
NST Now A Kid’s Paper, Sells Below 90,000

10 thoughts on “NST drops to 73,000, B.Minggu loses 30% (ABC sneak peek)”

  3. The only surprise is that the NST still manages to sell 73,000 copies daily. By my estimation, NST should be selling 20,000. Anyway, let’s stop flogging a dead horse. The paper is washed up and neutered by Umno clowns. The damage has already been done by Ahmad Talib. Anyway, the much-hyped mother of all revamps will still go on with Mario Garcia, the world famous and award winning layout guru, joining the team next month. NST hopes this revamp will do the trick. We wish them success.

  4. Who would want to read rubbish ? These days if I have them I only use them for warping up my rubbish before I throw them away in the rubbish bin and in my younger days I used them whenever I went to the loo !

    • There are many hardworking professional journalists for whose work you show disrespect just because you don’t like the paper’s politics or individual journalists’ writings. Stop reading if you wish, stop buying if you feel strongly enough. But don’t insult all working journalists. They didn’t create the policies that you despise.

  5. NST, the paper of Gobind Rudra, Cheryl Doral, Lee See Yee, Hoffman … is now the most despised paper in the country. A denouement of its racist and mypophic policies perpetrated by Umno criminals masquerading as journalists. It is now an organisation run by thugs and half-baked journalists. Carry on your self-immolation, Datuk Ahmad Talib.

  6. Pingback: NST drops to 73,000, B.Minggu loses 30% (ABC sneak peek)

  7. can somebody call UTUSAN to ask them to send as many copies of UTUSAN to CAMBODIA? got big market here for sex stories on Malaysians….can also send IBRAHIM ALI here to teach CAMBODIANS how to read MALAY so that they fully understand sex stories…circulation sure go up

  8. One should give credit for this to the top men and women in NST editorial. They are experts when it comes to walking on quicksand. And also many kudos should be thrown in the directiion of Ibrahim Ali for helping NST gain this very down to earth achievement. Big bonuses and ex-gratia on the way for staff and editorial warlords.

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