The increase, which was helped by some substantial promotion and the launch of Observer Woman, meant that the newspaper recorded a yearly gain of 21.32%. It now stands little more than 140,000 behind its closest rival, The Sunday Telegraph, which recorded a figure of 682,739.
The Telegraph's new circulation director, Steven McLaughlin, said he was unperturbed by The Observer's performance, pointing out that The Sunday Telegraph, although down 1.35% year on year, was up 3.1% on its October pre-relaunch figure.
McLaughlin, who has previously worked as circulation director for Scotland's Daily Record and Sunday Mail, added: "The Observer put a lot of resolve behind its relaunch, but it is going to be difficult to sustain."
Claudine Collins, press director at MediaCom, agreed and believes the market will level off within the next three to four months. She said: "We never just look at the one month figure because it is just too specific. We look instead at the six-month figure which, for August to January, shows The Observer up by 1.36%."
The Independent on Sunday also enjoyed a hefty yearly increase of 16.89%, bringing its headline circulation figure up to 241,414. Head of circulation Paul Little put the increase down to a combination of a strong promotional month and its switch to compact format in the autumn.
Little added: "We believe a lot of dual buying goes on in January, but we think the market as a whole may be pulling readers in from the mid- market section."
Sales were less buoyant in the Sunday popular market, which overall saw a drop of 3.79% on January last year. Trinity Mirror's The People was worst hit, dropping more than 10% to 895,275.
The News of the World managed to halt its decline at 0.89%, thanks to some significant scoops that included Sven-Goran Eriksson's bean-spilling and the expose on Lib-Dem MP Mark Oaten's extra-marital liaisons.
Among the dailies, the popular and the mid-market titles once again suffered some gloomy results, falling overall by 2.25% and 3.58% respectively, compared with last year.
There was some respite for the quality dailies, which overall recorded a 0.99% yearly increase - largely thanks to increases from The Guardian and the Financial Times.
_1.jpg)
.jpg)
