Thanks to our loyal readers, we are still Ireland’s top-selling newspaper
THE Sunday Independent continues its unrivalled reign as the nation’s highest-selling newspaper — and remains the undisputed leader in the weekend quality market.
The latest ABC audit of newspaper sales in Ireland shows that Independent News & Media titles continue to dominate the Irish newspaper market, topping the quality Sunday, quality daily and popular Sunday newspaper markets.
The strong figures, covering the period from January to June 2016, show that the Sunday Independent continues to be Ireland’s highest selling newspaper with 64.7pc share of the quality Sunday market.
With an average 199,210 copies sold each Sunday, that’s more than twice that of its nearest competitor, the Sunday Times (77,455).
Readers have remained loyal to the Sunday Independent’s unrivalled news coverage and authoritative comment and analysis. The best sports section in Irish journalism, LIFE Magazine and top feature writing in Living continues to attract a huge audience.
The strong performance by the Sunday Independent comes amid continued innovation and development of Ireland’s best loved newspaper. The Media and Marketing page — edited by John McGee — has become essential reading in Sunday Business.
The section will now be edited by leading business journalist Samantha McCaughren, who takes up her position as Sunday Independent Business Editor from September.
Sunday Independent Editor Cormac Bourke said: “This is a strong performance and I would like to personally thank our readers who have made this newspaper the undisputed market leader.”
During the week, the Irish Independent continues to lead the quality daily newspaper market, accounting for almost half of all sales (49.9pc), selling 102,537 copies compared to The Irish Times, at 72,011 copies and the Irish Examiner
at 30,964 copies.
In the popular Sunday market, the Sunday World also continues to be the highest-selling newspaper with sales of 162,938 per week, equalling 45.9pc of all papers sold in the popular market each Sunday.
The latest figures confirm that the Irish Independent, Sunday Independent, Sunday World and The Herald, Dublin’s favourite daily newspaper, achieve sales on average of 1,197,795 copies per week.
Sales of the digital edition of the Irish Independent and Sunday Independent were up 100pc on last year.
INM Editor-in-Chief Stephen Rae commented: “The first-half figures prove our readers value the quality of our print titles which continue to dominate across both the daily and Sunday markets.
“Our strong performances once again display the Irish Independent and the Sunday Independent as Ireland’s leading quality daily and Sunday newspapers, the Sunday World as the biggest title in the popular market and The Herald as Dublin’s favourite newspaper.
“At INM, we invest in serious journalism and these figures reflect how important our trusted brand of journalism is to our readers.”