Newspapers had enjoyed a strong January on the back of concerted promotional activity, but last month saw the effects wear off for all, barring the Daily Mail and The Independent.
The Guardian was back down to 382,931, losing 3.03%, bringing further confirmation it has been unable to build on the 404,187 circulation it enjoyed in September, the month of its relaunch in the Berliner format. In contrast, its rival The Independent added 2.98% to reach 266,075. However, The Observer dropped 10.65% to 486,357 after its stunning climb to 542,075 in January's figures after its Berliner-size relaunch.
The Times also gave up some of its recent gain, falling 2.25% to 669,691 while The Daily Telegraph came close to registering a second month below 900,000. It was down 1.74% to 901,123. The Financial Times was steady, down just 0.23% to 440,837.
In the mid-market, The Daily Express fell 2.48% to 827,905 despite holding on to its low 30p cover price and continuing its ad push. It was a good month, however, for rival the Daily Mail, up 2.1% to 2.439m.
The two big red-tops sank dramatically, with the Daily Mirror hitting a new low of 1.657m by losing 4.11% of its circulation.
Over at The Sun, January's gains from the big DVD giveaway melted away, and it fell 5.24% to 3.145m. The Daily Star, like its Express stablemate still selling for 30p, dropped by 3.44% to 791,900.
London's Evening Standard slipped by 0.87% to 334,144, and its free Lite Edition distributed 78,838 copies.
Trinity Mirror's Racing Post, facing competition from the March 22 launch of gambling paper The Sportsman, was down 2.5% to 70,334.
Fortunes for the Sunday papers have proven to be mixed, with the red tops experiencing the sharpest fall in circulation.
The Daily Star Sunday had the worst dip, falling 11.93% to 386,690, followed by the Sunday Mirror, which suffered an even bigger dip than its sister daily title, dropping 7.76% to 1,451,834. Trinity Mirror stablemate The People was down 1.21% to 884,410.
The Sunday Express fell 1.6% to 862,987 while rival the Mail on Sunday was down 4.95% to 2,285,387.
Happier news for the quality Sunday papers. The Sunday Telegraph is up 0.15% to 683,741 from 682,739. However, the news will came too late for Sarah Sands, who was sacked as editor on Monday. The Sunday Times was up 1.06% to 1.372m from 1,357.
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