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Broadsheet readership up in tight market
21 February 2010 By Catherine O'Mahony
Research on press last week revealed robust readership levels for broadsheet newspapers in 2009,while sales figures dropped for almost all papers, almost certainly due to the economic decline.
The Joint National Readership Survey (JNRS) was good news for the quality press, with The Sunday Business Post gaining 27 per cent and the Irish Times up 16 per cent. The Sunday Times rose 23 per cent, and Sunday Tribune was up 22 per cent while the Sunday Independent rose 10 per cent. In the dailies, the Irish Independent was up 12 per cent and the Irish Examiner up by 3 per cent.
Tabloid papers did less well, with the Irish Daily Star suffering the biggest drop of 13 per cent, while the Sunday World fell 12 per cent (for this well read title it means a drop of 107,000 readers).The News of the World was down by 9 per cent. However, the Irish Daily Star Sunday was up 5 per cent and the Irish Sunday Mirror gained 7 per cent.
Readership of the Irish Farmers Journal soared by 24 per cent to 272,000. In the middle market, the Irish Daily Mail was up 2 per cent and the Mail on Sunday up 13 per cent.
Overall, the results showed growing interest in newspapers, with 87.3 per cent of adults reporting that they read a newspaper every day.
However, circulation figures from the Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC) suggested that, while more people are reading papers, the economic downturn is causing them to spend less on them. Virtually every paper experienced some level of sales decline, though some of these were offset by large numbers of bulk sales.
Independent News &Media titles showed significant reliance on bulk sales for both the Irish Independent and Sunday Independent, while the Sunday Tribune added some 3,000 bulk sales to its usual number, to end with a total of 11,467.
The Sunday Tribune nonetheless saw its circulation drop by 9.5 per cent to 60,344,which was the largest decline in the market. Also particularly badly hit were Irish sales of British titles, such as the Financial Times (down 21 per cent to 3,754) and the Daily Telegraph (down 13 per cent to 3,027). Irish sales of the Observer dropped 19 per cent to 9,400.
Paul Moran of Media works said it was clear that consumers were consolidating their investment in newspapers. ‘‘It’s a tougher market for everyone. I suppose the good news for Irish papers is that the declines are in single digits. Clearly people are buying a paper, but they are not buying two or three, and the first to go have been the British papers, as I assume their relevance is less."
The Irish Independent posted a 3 per cent decline in sales to 146,906 while the Sunday Independent held its own with a decline of 0.8 per cent to 268,140.The Irish Times was down 7.4 per cent at 106,926.
Paul Moran noted that, once bulk sales are discounted, the Irish Times is now selling only 29,000 copies fewer than the Irish Independent. At present, just 86 per cent of the Irish Independent copies are actively bought, as against 93.6 per cent of the Irish Times copies, he noted.
Many media buyers consider bulk-distributed copies to be of lower value to advertisers than those that are paid for in full. Star Sunday was down 6.5 per cent at 56,004,while the Irish Daily Star dropped below 100,000 to 97.647, a 7 per cent decline.
In the Thomas Crosbie Holdings group, The Sunday Business Post was down 4.9 per cent at 52,271.The Irish Examiner fell to 49,096, down 6.6 per cent. Anthony Dinan, Thomas Crosbie Holdings managing director, said it was clear people were sharing papers more to save on costs.
‘‘People are still hungry for news and it’s great to see those readership figures. Regarding sales, I have to say that The Sunday Business Post has come down from a very high base, and it’s clearly very much regarded by readers as a primary source of information on matters financial and economic.
And for both The Post and the Examiner, it has to be remembered that our figures are not packed with free copies, so the scale of the fall in sales really reflects the market."
The Sunday Times was the only title to report a sales lift of 4 per cent, based on six month figures. It reported a six-month circulation figure of 114,413 for the July to December period, up from 109,999 in the comparable period of 2008.
Oliver Keenaghan, general manager of News International Ireland, said the number s were the result of continual investment in marketing and journalism. ‘‘We are looking forward to continuing this growth in the coming months," he said.
Associated Newspapers reported an 8 per cent drop in circulation for its daily title on a six-month comparison, bringing the total back to 49,984.The Irish Mail on Sunday fell 3.9 per cent to 120,559.
Paul Henderson, the paper’s managing director, said he was delighted with the gains in readership, particularly for the Mail on Sunday. ‘‘We’re the best performing popular Sunday tabloid," he said. ‘‘And the bottom line is good, as we’ve had fewer giveaways and a price increase."
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