Irish Examiner sales surge

THE Irish Examiner shows a strong performance in the newly released circulation figures for Irish-based newspapers, recording an increase of 1.8% in its cover price sales in the last six months of 2004 compared to the same period in the previous year.

In July to December 2004, compared to the first half of 2004, the Examiner showed sales growth of 2% to 58,778.

Unlike the other morning titles, dependence on bulk sales - copies which can be substantially price discounted or sold to mark a special event or which are sometimes given away free - has been reduced by 32% during the period and the percentage of actively purchased copies is 94.32% of sales, an increase of 2.63%.