The match of the Boxing dailies

Once upon a time, national newspapers remained silent on Christmas Day, Boxing Day, Easter Day and New Year's Day. Now, only 25 December can be enjoyed without the possibility of buying a paper.

"It makes absolutely no commercial sense to produce a paper on Boxing Day, but it's one of those things where if your competitor is out there in the market place, then you have to be there as well," says Jeremy Deedes, managing director of the Telegraph Group Ltd, publisher of the Daily and Sunday Telegraph.

The pied piper for publishing on Boxing Day was, inevitably, Rupert Murdoch. Whereas most newspapers had appeared on Easter Day and New Year's Day for decades, it was only in 1987 that News International decided to break with tradition and print The Sun and The Times on 26 December, requiring staff to work on Christmas Day and

relying on as many newsagents as possible to cut short their holiday. Last month, every national daily except The Guardian was on sale the day after Christmas. Circulation figures for Boxing Day are excluded from the December ABCs - due out next week - but circulation directors assume that most papers sold about a third less than normal. The Times estimates that it had a circulation of 508,000 on Boxing Day, which, perhaps surprisingly, was higher than it managed on New Year's Day. Almost 20,000 of those Boxing Day sales were in the Republic of Ireland, where no newspapers are printed on 26 December and where The Times usually sells fewer than 6,000 copies.

"Our experience has been that there is plenty of demand from readers on Boxing Day. This year, in particular, we had a scoop about the shoe-bomber," says George Brock, managing director of The Times. "If there have been problems in the past, it's been getting the papers distributed and into the hands of readers. But this has become easier as time has gone on."

When The Times was alone among the broadsheets in publishing on 26 December, it became a major sampling exercise - an audacious, but expensive, marketing campaign, as newsagents were persuaded to give regular readers of The Daily Telegraph a copy of The Times, particularly those receiving home delivery. "Perhaps we should have allowed this to continue, hoping that people would take a dim view of such a ploy," says Deedes. "We didn't, and it's now highly unlikely that we would ever stop publishing on Boxing Day."

The Daily Telegraph pays its journalists extra for working on Christmas Day and lays on some festive food and drink. The Times gives staff two days in lieu, plus a bottle of champagne. So do most of the tabloids.

"We never have a problem getting people to work," says Piers Morgan, editor of The Mirror. "Sales aren't great but it's important that we are seen to be providing a service to those of our readers who want a paper on Boxing Day."

At The Guardian, where the views of the union still carry some weight, Chris Elliott, the paper's managing editor, says: "The decision as to whether we publish on Boxing Day is not set in concrete, but made on a year-by-year basis, having regard to the circumstances for advertising and editorial. This year we simply didn't think it was worth it. But that doesn't mean we wouldn't consider it next year."