Key reader gains for Irish Examiner

THE Irish Examiner was the only national daily broadsheet last year to gain readers in the key ABC1 category, according to the Joint National Readership Survey (JNRS) published today.

The figures for the high earning professional ABC1 readership sector jumped 10% from 78,000 to 86,000, while the Irish Times and Irish Independent lost 16% or 48,000 and 5% or 15,000 respectively.

The Irish Examiner also comes out on top in the solus readership figures people who only read one national daily newspaper. With 78% of this group the Irish Examiner has the highest percentage readership followed by the Irish Independent and Irish Times.

In Munster the Irish Examiner completely dominates this affluent and influential market with 21% more readers than the Times and Independent combined.

In this market the Irish Examiner has 78% more readers than the Irish Times and 42% more than the Irish Independent.

The survey also shows that the Irish Times suffered significant reader decline in Dublin, down 22% from 206,000 to 161,000. It also dropped heavily in Connaught/Ulster, down 35.5% from 45,000 to 29,000.

The Irish Independent had similar difficulties in the Dublin market, falling 21% from 183,000 to 144,000. In the rest of Leinster its readership declined by 5.6% from 176,000 to 166,000.

National Newspapers of Ireland (NNI) co-ordinating director, Frank Cullen said the new stand-alone survey was the most definitive piece of readership research ever to be produced for the Irish market as it included individual readership data for all Irish daily, Sunday and weekly newspapers, as well as, for the first time, the Irish editions of British titles.

Neil Thompson, Director of Lucid Communications said the new survey format was a step in the right direction.

"I think it is good as it includes people who have read a newspaper for a minimum of two minutes not just glanced at the title," he said.

David Sneddon, director with advertising agency Mindshare said the increased level of reader involvement with newspapers under the new format for reporting readership figures was to be welcomed.

The Irish Examiner also performed better than the Irish Independent in last week's Audit Bureau of Circulation (ABC) figures which showed an average 4% decline in the number of full rate daily broadsheet sales as defined by ABC, which exclude discounted promotional sales to colleges, airlines and others.

While the Irish Examiner had a 4.5% fall the Irish Independent dropped by 5.8%.

The Irish Examiner also improved its ABC-rated actively purchased percentage from 90% to 92% for the six months ended June 2003 compared the Irish Independent's fall from 98% to 89% when compared to the same period in 2002.

This fall in broadsheet sales is symptomatic of the overall slowdown in the economy and is shared by many other sectors.

Despite a massive newspaper give-away campaign by the Irish Independent over a lengthy period on the streets of Cork, Irish Examiner readership figures have moved only slightly in Cork and in line with the market for full rate daily broadsheet sales as defined by ABC.

As regards the Sunday newspaper market, the most revealing aspect of the JNRS survey is the increased readership of Ireland on Sunday, up a massive 133% or 247,000 to 433,000.

This has largely been achieved at the expense of Independent News & Media titles the Sunday Independent, down 9% (101,000) and the Sunday World down 18.2% (189,000).

But the good news for the newspaper industry is that the survey shows extremely strong levels of readership of newspapers, including daily, Sunday and weekly titles.

According to the JNRS, typically every week in Ireland, 94% of all adults aged 15+ read newspapers with 83% reading at least one daily newspaper.