Weekly NDM Story ..

Daily Mail overtakes Sun as biggest-selling Saturday paper

The Daily Mail overhauled the Sun in November to become the UK's biggest-selling Saturday paper for the first time. However, the News UK red-top remains by some distance the biggest-selling UK daily across six days – a position it has held since overtaking the Daily Mirror in 1978. In November the Saturday edition of the Daily Mail had an average headline circulation of 2,474,439, compared with the Sun's 2,453,981, according to the latest Audit Bureau of Circulation figures published on Friday.

Across six days, Monday to Saturday, the Sun averaged 2,089,752 copies, against the Daily Mail's 1,755,308. The Daily Mail's headline sales figure includes an average of 91,277 "bulks" – copies sold to airlines, rail companies, hotels and gyms for a nominal fee and given free to the public. This is a marginal rise of October's bulks figure of 87,391. The Sun does not distribute bulks.

The Daily Mail was only daily tabloid to increase sales month on month – and then only marginally, 0.10%. The Sun was down 2.83% compared with October. "While we have out sold the Sun on Saturdays previously, this is the first time we have achieved better sales over the course month," said Roland Agambar, chief marketing officer for Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday publisher DMG Media.

"The performance of both papers demonstrates the strength of the Mail brand, the success of our loyalty strategy and the advantage of continued editorial and commercial investment."

In the quality daily sector the Guardian and i were the only titles to increase sales between October and November. The Guardian's average daily circulation was up by 0.44% month on month to 199,672 – the Guardian News & Media title's third successive monthly sales increase. The Lebedevs' 20p daily i was up 0.32% to 297,510.

Every national Sunday title was down month on month.

The Sun

Headline circulation: 2,089,752

Month-on-month change: -2.83%

Year-on-year change: -11.51%

Saturday edition: 2,453,981

Overseas: 21,816

Daily Mail

Headline circulation: 1,755,308

Month-on-month change: +0.10%

Year-on-year change: -6.21%

Saturday: 2,474,439

UK and Ireland paid-for circulation: 1,593,682 (90.8% of total)

Overseas: 70,349

Bulks: 91,277

Daily Mirror

Headline circulation: 1,000,170

Month-on-month change: -1.41%

Year-on-year change: -4.28%

Saturday: 1,183,499

UK and Ireland paid-for circulation: 938,125 (93.8% of total)

Overseas: 32,045

Bulks: 30,000

Daily Express

Headline circulation: 508,458

Month-on-month change: -1.12%

Year-on-year change: -5.36%

Saturday: 575,494

Overseas: 12,101

Daily Star

Headline circulation: 506,729

Month-on-month change: -2.97%

Year-on-year change: -9.51%

Saturday: 455,334

Overseas: 5,245

Daily Telegraph

Headline circulation: 544,340

Month-on-month change: -0.86%

Year-on-year change: -0.38%

Saturday: 713,297

Overseas: 12,644