Sales of the Sunday Herald rose by more than 9pc last month after it became the first UK mainstream media title to name the footballer at the centre of a privacy injunction.

According to the latest ABC figures, the Glasgow-based title reported a month-on-month circulation increase of 9.18pc in May, taking its average sales to 32,292.

On 22 May the paper devoted its front page to a thinly-disgused image of the footballer, at that stage only known in court as CTB, with the word ‘censored’ covering just his eyes.

The following day, the footballer was named in Parliament by John Hemming MP as Ryan Giggs and the rest of the UK media swiftly followed the Herald’s lead.

The Herald’s Edinburgh rival Scotland on Sunday also recorded a month-on-month increase frmo April of 7.18pc.

However sales of all Scotland’s major titles fell year-on-year, with the Sunday Herald actually seeing the biggest decrease at 17.81pc.

Average circulations for the period December 2010-May 2011, with the year-on-year change in brackets, were as follows:

Daily Record 307,959 (-5.79pc)
The Herald 50,910 (-8.26pc)
The Scotsman 41,746 (-8.35pc)

Sunday Mail 363,384 (-7.94pc)
Sunday Post 311,556 (-6.98pc)
Scotland on Sunday 54,662 (-5.69pc)
Sunday Herald 34,682 (-17.81pc).