Roger Alton, editor of The Observer, will be happy with a 9 per cent annual lift, although the sale of 484,357 was down by more than 57,000 (10.6 per cent) on January's re-launch. Almost all Sunday titles saw an annual fall in sales, with The Sunday Telegraph's ABC of 683,741 (down 0.4 per cent year-on-year) giving little ammunition to Sarah Sands supporters who argue that her dismissal last week was unreasonably premature. The Telegraph Group saw headline sales of 901,123 (including 9,000 copies dispatched abroad) but total full-price UK news sales (excluding foreign and bulk sales) are down by 3.2 per cent year-on-year to 795,255.

The Guardian's post-Berliner year-on-year lift is shrinking by the month and is now down to 4.4 per cent. Sales have fallen from 404,187 in September to 382,931 last month, although UK news sales are still 8 per cent up year-on-year. The Independent's sales rose by 3 per cent month-on-month and 0.9 per cent year-on-year, its highest share of the quality market since October 2004.

Circulation of the red-top titles (The Sun, Daily Mirror, Daily Star and Daily Record) continued to fall and is now close toa total daily sale of less than 6 million copies.