Independent titles lose readership

08 March 2009  By Catherine O’Mahony

Almost all Independent News & Media titles have suffered significant drops in readership, according to the latest Joint National Readership Survey (JNRS).

The Sunday Tribune’s readership plunged, with the paper losing 30 per cent of its readership base and dropping back to 152,000. The Sunday Business Post now has more readers than the Tribune, at 155,000.

The Sunday Independent dropped below 1 million readers to 941,000, a fall of 8 per cent, while the Irish Independent lost 50,000 readers to 520,000, a drop of 9 per cent.

This was a considerably steeper decline than that experienced by its rival, the Irish Times, which dropped 2.5 per cent to 317,000.Meanwhile, the Irish Examiner was down by 24 per cent to 202,000.

The winners of last year included the Daily Star group, whose readership figures were up 9 per cent in its daily edition and 16 per cent in its Sunday edition. The Irish Daily Mail also made readership gains, up 19 per cent to 139,000 in its daily edition and 6 per cent to 268,000 on Sundays.

The Sunday Business Post’s readership was 2.5 per cent lower at 155,000, down from 159,000, while the Sunday Times saw its readership fall 7 per cent to 337,000 from 363,000. The Sunday World was virtually unchanged at 919,000, down from 922,000, and is now just 22,000 readers behind the Sunday Independent.

Readership figures were released for the first time for the two Dublin freesheets, allocating 100,000 to Herald AM and 90,000 to Metro. The Evening Herald surprisingly increased its readership to 317,000 from 315,000.