Latest ABC figures released
News Ireland reports "continued investment in all four of our titles will position us very well for the future”
Print18 August 2017
As always when the latest Audit Bureau of Circulation (ABC) figures for newspapers are released, retailers will have been keen to check out the results this week.
The figures which are comprehensively reported on in The Irish Times here, do not contain joyous news for the print trade in general however.
The daily market dropped 9.3% year-on-year, with 422,415 copies sold on an average day. Meanwhile, sales in the Sunday market fell 7.6%, with 618,866 newspapers now sold every Sunday.
One bright spot is the performance of the News Ireland stable. The ABC figures show The Sunday Times has increased sales to 79,751, while The Irish Sun remains the best-selling tabloid in the country.
The figures, which cover the period January to June 2017, show The Sunday Times has increased circulation by 3% since the same period last year. This means it is now the fastest growing Sunday quality newspaper in Ireland.
On the daily front, The Irish Sun continues to be the best selling daily tabloid newspaper in Ireland. The latest ABC figures show it is now selling 55,676 copies every day.
The Ireland edition of The Times, meanwhile, sold an average of 9,820 copies during its first month as a print publication, increasing further to 10,275 copies in month two. Building on the success of the digital format, which recently celebrated its 10,000th subscriber**, the Ireland edition of The Times launched the printed product in June 2017.
Both The Sunday Times and The Ireland edition of The Times used bulk copies in the first half of 2017, but had not done so in the same period in 2016.
Oliver Keenaghan, general manager with News Ireland, said of the results: “News Ireland have recorded growth on two of our titles and maintained market leadership on another in a very challenging market which is a fantastic result.
“We are particularly delighted with the strong start the Ireland edition of The Times has made in the print market,” said Keenaghan. “While our competitors face difficult times and cut back expenditure, we will continue investing in quality journalism and we are particularly excited about the future plans we have in place for all four of our titles over the coming 12 months.
“We believe that this continued investment in our titles will position us very well for the future,” he added.
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