Readership is up for the Czech Republic's top two general dailies, Lidové noviny and MF Dnes, for the first half of 2007, the latest readership survey Media Projekt 2007 by Publicitas has found.

The country's best selling general interest daily MF Dnes saw readership go up by 80,000 readers from last year, to 1,128,000 readers for the period between January and June this year. Lidové noviny, considered to be the Czech Republic's highest regarded daily, also saw readership climb, but by 7,000 readers. That daily's numbers grew to 239,000 in 2007, from 232,000 in 2006.

Neither paper, however, was able to reach its 2005 readership numbers in the first half. For MF Dnes, that number was at 1,187,000. Lidové noviny saw 330,000 that year.

The Czech Republic's highest selling daily, the tabloid Blesk, jumped in readership, from 1,527,000 in 2006 to 1,623,000 in 2007.

The general interest newspaper Pravo and business and finance newspaper Hospodarske noviny both saw readership drop – from 208,000 in 2006 to 202,000 in 2007 for Hospodarske noviny and from 478,000 to 457,000 for the formerly Communist Pravo.

The free daily Metro continued its climb and top spot in the free daily category, from 319,000 in 2006 to 341,000 in 2007. Other free dailies 24 Hodin, founded in 2005, and Metropolitni Expres, founded in 2006, did not have figures available for previous years. 24 Hodin had a readership of 177,000 so far this year, while Metropolitni Expres saw 161,000.

The sport newspaper, called Sport, saw numbers drop, from 312,000 in 2006 to 279,000 in this year's first half. However, this year's numbers beat its readership in 2005, which was then at 268,000.

To view the full report, go to Publicitas.