ABC: Many Irish newspapers see circulation declines

Posted by Savita Sauvin on August 22, 2010 at 5:58 PM

According to the latest Joint National Readership Survey (JNRS), 86 percent of Irish citizens are amongst the most avid newspaper readers in Europe; however, this did not help increase circulation numbers across the country.

All Irish newspapers, including daily and weekly titles listed in the latest "Island of Ireland Report" from the Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC), showed lower circulation figures, The Irish Times reported.

According to the figures released by the ABC, The Irish Times saw a circulation drop of 7.6 percent during the period of January to June this year, with 105,742 compared to 114,488 recorded in the first half of last year.

The Irish Independent also witnessed a circulation drop of 4.8 percent, and the Irish Examiner was down 7.3 percent. Among the evening dailies, the Evening Herald saw a decrease in circulation by 5 percent, its weekend edition by 2.3 percent, and Cork's Evening Echo was down by 7.9 percent. In the Sunday editions, The Sunday Tribune witnessed the highest circulation decline of 17.2 percent, followed by Sunday Business Post with 14.1 percent and Sunday Independent by 2.5 percent.

With many weeklies experiencing double-digit falls, the only title that recorded a rise by a mere 0.3 percent was the Donegal News, MediaGuardian reported. While most northern weeklies showed circulation declines, they did manage to get better control in comparison to their republic counterparts, such as The Belfast Telegraph, which experienced a drop of 1 percent, the Irish News by 2.7 percent and the Newsletter by 3.6 percent.

Many free dailies witnessed an increase in circulation, such as The Cork Independent by 5.2 percent, the Limerick Post and the Galway Independent, Inside Ireland reported. While consumer magazines also witnessed declines, Social and Personal, and Sky Magazine Ireland saw an increase in numbers by 27.7 percent and 7.8 percent, respectively. In terms of unique website visitors, RTÉ recorded maximum website visits at 303,850, followed by Daft.ie at 176,162, Independent.ie at 158,521 and IrishTimes.com at 149,212.

The Irish editions of The Sun, The Star, The Mirror and The Times, as well as the weekly editions of Irish-published regional titles, witnessed circulation declines year-on-year, according to the Irish Times. The Sunday World recorded the highest circulation numbers with average sales of 267,130 copies during the period. The "Island of Ireland report" does not include British newspapers that publish Irish editions.

Overall, the latest ABC figures showed circulation decline in the Republic of Ireland from last year's 1,551,930 to 1,494,062 in the current year, paidContent reported.