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Sources suggest that the titles benefited from two big news stories – the massacre in Norway and the death of Amy Winehouse – as consumers switch allegiance to new titles following the demise of the NotW.

But it remains to be seen whether newspaper publishers can afford to sustain their heavy promotions over the long term.

Sly Bailey's two tabloid titles, the Sunday Mirror and The People scored respective circulations of 2,050,000 and 900,000 on Sunday, from the previous week.

The People price discounted from £1 to 75p, and the Sunday Mirror's cover price was halved to 50p at the weekend.

Both titles covered the Winehouse and Norway tragedy stories in detail.

Richard Desmond's Daily Star Sunday reported a circulation of 810,000 on Sunday, around 8% down on the previous week, despite the red-top being heavily promoted on TV over the weekend.

The Daily Star Sunday's circulation still compares favourably with its June
average issue circulation, which was just over 306,000 copies.

Desmond's Sunday Express was slightly up on the previous week, at 610,000 copies

The Mail on Sunday – discounted from £1.50 to £1 – was flat on the previous week, locking in the 15% extra copies to maintain the 2.2 million figure it grabbed last week.

The title's June audited circulation figure was 1.92 million.

The Mail on Sunday ran with a £5-off Tesco promotion on its cover.

It is still unclear whether executives at parent group DMGT will launch a Sunday tabloid title.