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Updated, 19:01
EVERY NATIONAL newspaper saw its circulation decline in the second half of 2012, when compared to the second half of 2011, new figures have shown.
Data published by the UK-based Audit Bureau of Circulations, commissioned by the Irish titles, showed that every national title saw its circulation fall over the year – with some titles faring better than others.
The Irish Times had a daily circulation of 88,356, down by 8.1 per cent from the equivalent period in 2011, while the Irish Independent‘s circulation dropped by 5.5 per cent to 123,981.
Both of the major Thomas Crosbie Media titles, the Irish Examiner and the Sunday Business Post, saw their circulation drop under the 40,000 mark – the Examiner down by 6 per cent to 39,555, and the Business Post to 39,416 (down 8.6 per cent). The Cork-based Evening Echo saw circulation fall 11.1 per cent, to 16,560.
The Irish Daily Star lost 11.1 per cent of its circulation, falling to 66,491. INM’s Evening Herald dropped 5.8 per cent to 58,826.
The figures for the Irish editions of British-owned tabloid papers are measured on a monthly basis, as part of the more regular auditing of their British parent titles, but have shown falls of similar scale.
The Irish Sun‘s circulation for January 2013 fell 8.8 per cent year-on-year to 66,823; the Irish Daily Mirror was down 8.27 per cent to 56,872, while the Irish Daily Mail held steady, dropping only 0.24 per cent of its circulation to 50,207.
It is the Sunday market which has shown the most flux, particularly in the tabloid end, where the vacuum from the closure of the News of the World in July 2011 has led to more dramatic changes of fortune.
The Sunday Independent remains Ireland’s most widely-read newspaper, despite a drop of 5.4 per cent in its circulation to 237,185.
The Sunday World - which had recorded the highest circulation of any title in the equivalent period last year – saw a fall of 13.6 per cent, to 217,141 copies circulated each week. The Sunday Times fell below the 100,000 barrier, down 6.6 per cent to 98,132 copies.
The Irish Sun on Sunday, which was introduced to the market in February 2012, had an average weekly circulation of 58,749 – only just over half of the old News of the World’s final weekly circulation, of 113,111, but enough to damage the Irish Sunday Mirror – which saw circulation fall 31.7 per cent to 41,910.
The Irish Mail on Sunday also saw its circulation fall as a result of the new tabloid entrant: it had a weekly average of 98,484, down by 14.5 per cent.
Circulation does not necessarily equate to average sales at news-stands and newsagents; it also includes subscription copies and complimentary copies provided in places like hotels.
The figures are separate to readership statistics produced by the industry-run Joint National Readership Survey, published earlier this month, which showed that roughly 82 per cent of the adult population read a newspaper on a monthly or weekly basis.
In that instance, National Newspapers of Ireland chairman Frank Cullen told AdWorld.ie that the slight fall in readership figures was probably as a result of the drop in employment numbers – meaning fewer people attended a workplace where newspapers could be shared around.
Correction: This article previously carried an error relating to the 2011 circulation for the Sunday Independent, suggesting its circulation had risen in 2012 compared to 2011. The 2011 figure has been corrected and the 2012 performance revised accordingly.
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Why is it always a “joint” operation…. ? Could they not just say combined ?
@Aurelio Na Fodhla: Only when it’s not about cannabis
@Aurelio Na Fodhla: I always have a wee smile when they use the phrase “joint operation”. I remember a headline from one of the evening papers years ago that read, “Firefighters stoned in Dolphins Barn”. At least they weren’t drunk !
Just think of the tax revenue if it was legal and controlled in the same manner as alcohol & cigarettes. Added benefit of not having to deploy gards & customs agents wasting time over something they cannot eradicate. If the found €2million worth you can be sure there is €200million they didn’t find.
Senseless comment, the majority of people who consume cannabis (or alcohol) are not addicts and enjoy their lives just as much as anyone else. End the stigma please.
Only here for the comments – Bonus
Points will be awarded for originality.
Hash heads pxxs heads whatever else.
Can Irish people go for a swim.
Just enjoy life without adicitions
@The Grand Nagus: hash heads? Nice 1970′s terminology there.
@JustBEERbarry: Sneer all you like, Those hash heads wreaked havoc in the 70’s! YOU WEREN’T THERE MAN
@JustBEERbarry:
Whatever you want to call it its addiction.
I lived with stoners years ago.
Terrible experience.
Paranoid bunch.
@The Grand Nagus: Not as bad as a house of drinkers. Nothing worse!
@Tomo:
True but it all addiction
We have a lovely country..
Go out and enjoy it
Its ten times better without been pxxs
Or stonned
@Alan Biddulph: if you remember it you weren’t there either man!!
@The Grand Nagus: Tell that to the thousands of people who glorify coffee addiction. Caffeine is a lot less healthy than a joint at night!
@Tomo:
Ahh the denial.
OK don’t drink coffee also.
@The Grand Nagus: swim away but just cause people have a pint or a joint doesn’t make em junk!es or pi55 heads. Judgy Judgy like……
@The Grand Nagus: so says the bloke with an addiction to talk absolute ball ox.
@The Grand Nagus: so tell us, were you always this judgemental?
@Tomo: Total nonsense
@Christopher Byrne: what’s nonsense? The part about the house full of drinkers? Or caffeine being an addiction? Or caffeine being more harmful than cannabis? I’m sure you have a watertight arguement.
@The Grand Nagus: sounds like you’re addicted to the oul swimming there. Probably a water-head. Dihydrogen monoxide addiction is a serious issue but the guards are afraid of taking on Big Uisce. I’d say you couldn’t go more than a few days without a hit of H2O or the withdrawals would be the end of you. And you’d probably say you’re just a recreational user. But really it’s all addiction.
@Mac Muinteoir: you’re right, if it’s sea swimming this individual is engaging in its 100% addictive.
I know several daily swimmers and they tell me its an addiction, a buzz.
Funnily enough all these seaswimmers I know also like a pint and/or a smoke too. Huh, weird. Or maybe he likes to refer to it as something else not quite as judgemental as an addiction/buzz.
€2 million for that amount is ridiculous. Do they actually just make up a random figure they think will sound good?
@D: it’s priced per ten spot
@D: No “quarter” given when announcing big busts it seems!
Following the who what where when and how model of journalism I found this article lacking in substance. The lack of detail was astonishing. No Garda or official was named. The place where the drugs were discovered was anonymised. There was no sense that anyone was identified as owning the drugs and so would be liable for prosecution. That might have made a difference to their ongoing illegal activity. It’s like a press release from the Revenue was elevated into an article without ever passing through the interrogation of a journalist’s brain to examine the significance of the information as news.
@feargal ‘2 metres’ de cantuin: covering an informers tracks methinks
Good that they’re finally breaking ground on the drugs that we see destroying lives on a daily bases, by that I mean Heroin, don’t see the same arguments from the usual ‘heads’ on those articles, mostly because they’re really only interested IN the argument, and twisting the screw on those it does matter too. Stay classy ya’ll
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