The rate of decline in Irish national newspaper circulation may be slowing down according to the latest ABC Ireland of Ireland report with daily sales declining by around 4% with the Sunday market down by 6% in the second half of 2015.
The so-called Island of Ireland report, which is published by the Audit Bureau of Circulations in the UK, covers the period between July and December 2015.
In the daily market, the Irish Independent continues to hold on to its position at the top selling daily newspaper with an ABC figure of 108,460, a slight decline of 1,000 on the previous period. It is followed by the Irish Times, which ended the year with average daily sales of 74,092, down 3.6% while the Irish Sun, on 58,463 copies, edged out the Irish Daily Star, which ended the period with 55,336 while the Irish Daily Mail was the only daily title to increase its circulation, reporting a 2% year-on-year increase to end 2015 with 46,028.
Elsewhere, the Irish Daily Mirror reported average daily circulation of 40,300 while the Irish Examiner saw a modest decrease of 550 to end up a circulation of 32,648 while its stablemate, the Evening Echo ended the period on 11,534.
In the cut-throat Sunday market, Independent News & Media’s two titles, the Sunday Independent and the Sunday World, continue to dominate. With a circulation of 211,856, down by 1,693 copies, the paper is by far the biggest selling newspaper in Ireland. Trailing behind it is the Sunday World, which saw a decline of 3,807 from the previous period, ending up with a circulation of 175,060.
The third biggest selling newspaper on Sundays is the Irish Mail on Sunday (86,191) followed closely by the Sunday Times (80,023) while the Sun on Sunday saw a 1.6% increase in its circulation to end the period with 55,779 readers per week. Elsewhere, the Sunday Business Post ended the period with a circulation of 32,162 copies a week while the Sunday Mirror saw a 13% decline in its figures, to finish the year with 28,835. Meanwhile the Farmers Journal, ended the period with an average weekly circulation of 66,041.
