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Northern & Shell's Daily Star tumbled 15.5% year-on-year to 699,216 in March. It marks only the second time the newspaper's circulation has dipped below 700,000 in the past nine years, and follows a 2.7% drop since February.

Despite the falling sales, the , which has been in place since November 2008.

In further bad news for Northern & Shell, the newspaper's weekend sibling, Daily Star Sunday, was also among the year's biggest fallers, down 2.9% month-on-month and 14.1% year-on-year, to 293,489 copies.

At the start of April, Sport Media Group, publisher of the rival tabloids Daily Sport and Sunday Sport, ceased its publishing operations, citing "an insufficient recovery in trading since the adverse weather in December 2010", which led to "inability to meet certain creditors as they fall due".

Desmond's Northern & Shell printed and distributed the Daily Sport and Sunday Sport, and is believed to have been among the creditors not prepared to renegotiate terms.

It is too early to tell if the Daily Star will benefit from a circulation sales lift following the Daily Sport's demise. The target readerships of the two brands are more closely aligned than with most other newspapers in the sector.

Meanwhile, Desmond, the 59-year-old proprietor, is reported to be open to offers for his newspapers, with Barclays Capital predicting profits will nearly double over the next two years in a document for prospective buyers.

Desmond bought terrestrial broadcaster Channel 5 last summer.