Does a royal death sell more papers?

Princess Margaret may not have got everything right in her life but - from a news perspective, at least - she timed her death perfectly. She could hardly have done more to guarantee blanket coverage in the Sunday papers than to die at 6.30am on a Saturday when there were no big stories around. The papers had a whole day to put together their pull-out memorial tributes - more than 160 pages of them, including an astonishing 450 pictures.

For someone who had never really captured the heart of the public, and whose main role in the royal soap opera - her painful decision not to marry the love of her life, Group Captain Peter Townsend - had been played out in 1955, nearly half a century ago (before most newspaper readers, or even editors, had been born), it was a truly remarkable send-off.

Only two papers, The Observer and The Independent on Sunday, both of them sceptical about royalty, failed to lead their front pages with the story and devoted the least number of pages inside (four and six respectively).

The Indie, in fact, mused in an editorial why it was doing even that much: "Some might think that we should devote little space to her passing. This is a moment to consider whether we are well served by a monarchy in its present form." It put on an estimated 5,000 extra copies and The Observer 4,000.

The newspaper market in general last Sunday rose by about four or five per cent over the week before, but how much of that gain should be attributed to the death of the princess is a matter of debate in circulation departments. The News of the World, which had the biggest rise of 185,000 copies with its 12-page pull-out, "Love, Lust, Scandal and Honour", says at least half of that can be traced to television promotion of a Pop Idol video. A circulation executive said: "It's sad, isn't it, that people care more about a pop star than a death in the Royal Family, but that's the way it seems to be."

In contrast, however, the Sunday Mirror (up by 70,000 copies) pins the gains directly to its 16-page editorial supplement on "The Tragic Princess".

The Mail on Sunday, which had shown a big increase the week before with a Lucky 7 game-card promotion, was up 80,000. The Sunday Times was in a similar position, holding the 100,000 copies it had put on the week before with TV promotion of Jeremy Clarkson's series on cars.

The Sunday Telegraph, which had 14 affectionate pages on the princess, was up by 21,000 copies.

It was a busy day for royal specialists. The usual suspects were rounded up - Anthony Holden in the Sunday Express, Robert Lacey in the Mail on Sunday, Hugo Vickers in The Sunday Telegraph - though the real scoop, a by-line from Roddy Llewellyn, the princess's former boyfriend, appeared in the News of the World. The same paper had a moving memoir from the normally less sensitive pen of Michael Winner.

According to industry estimates, the Sunday Express put on about 40,000 copies (it also had a voucher promotion) and the Sunday People 55,000, despite a splash headline of doubtful taste: "Anguish could finish Queen Mother". All the papers treated the princess kindly, though Nigel Dempster in the Mail on Sunday was rather ungentlemanly: "I was one of her courtiers, but unlike Roddy, I didn't have to sleep with her."

For all her fabled hauteur, my own memory is of the princess's sly wit. When she came to The Observer for a lunch in honour of her friend, Dame Ninette de Valois, and I proposed a loyal toast, she put her hand over mine and said: "I'm sure my sister will be very pleased, but it isn't really necessary, you know." Then she added with a grin: "I bet Andrew Neil wouldn't be doing this at The Sunday Times."

Donald Trelford was editor of The Observer from 1975-93 and is now visiting professor in journalism studies at Sheffield University and President of the Media Society