The Mail on Sunday sold an additional 600,000 copies, due to its promotional giveaway of Prince's new album, the newspaper's managing director announced today.

Sunday's sale of at least 2.8 million copies was the most successful promotion the paper has had in its 25-year history, Stephen Miron said.

As data is still being collected, newspaper executives do not yet know if the recent sales surge will beat the most copies it has ever sold: 2,844,000 when the newspaper released a multi-edition issue after Princess Diana's death in August 1997.

In June, the paper's average circulation was 2,276,107. Sunday's print run was increased from its usual 2.3 million to 3,050,000, of which 25,000 copies were placed in HMV music stores, the first in-store promotion of its kind.

The promotion is believed to have cost the paper nearly 1 million pounds. That includes paying Prince 250,000 pounds for the license of his new album, Planet Earth, as well as printing and marketing costs.

Because all extra copies sold at the full price of 1.40 pounds, and advertising revenues benefited from the increase circulation, Miron said the promotion was “at worst cost-neutral,” and extended the paper's reach and brand exposure.