Metro and Financial Times only newspapers growing print readership in UK

Since May last year till date, Metro and Financial Times are the only national newspapers in the UK to grow their print readerships. Metro had an average free distribution of 1,074,594 in May, staying steady month-on-month but growing by 17 percent since last year due to putting out more copies as people have returned to offices and public transport since the final COVID-19 lockdown. The only paid-for newspapers to grow their circulations month-on-month in May were the Financial Times, up 4 percent to 116,747 as growth in subscriptions, non-UK sales and bulk copies distributed in locations like airports and hotels offset a drop in newsstand sales, and The Sunday Mail in Scotland, up 0.2 percent to 69,923. The Sunday Mail did, however, fall by 17 percent year-on-year. Financial Times was the only paid-for paper to grow its circulation compared to May 2021, in large part because it has increased its distribution of bulk copies post-COVID from 25,361 last year to 34,661.