Ireland on Sunday remains on top

THE practice of selling papers in bulk at a discount, has helped shore up reported sales of Independent News & Media newspapers.

On Saturday, a front-page Irish Independent report said the latest Audit Bureau of Circulation (ABC) figures showed the paper was holding “rock steady” in a difficult market, with sales of just under 170,000 a day, in the six-month period from July to December 2002.

However, the ABC figures reveal a huge increase in bulk sales (where copies may be bought by third parties at a discount and often given away free of charge) of the Independent in the second half of last year.