Further sales increase for Irish Examiner

SALES of the Irish Examiner increased by 4% during the first six months of 2005 while the comparable circulation of rival newspapers either fell or remained static.

Editor Tim Vaughan attributed the circulation growth to agenda-setting journalism supported by a strongly focused marketing strategy and field-sales activity.

“The bottom line is we have a team of great journalists who are producing excellent newspapers which are being bought by more and more people. It’s a nice position to be in and we have very clear plans to keep this growth momentum going,” said Mr Vaughan.

The increase relates to actively purchased copies - the key barometer of circulation success - and excludes bulk sales, which are copies bought at discount by third parties, such as hotels, and are often given away free of charge.

In recent years the advertising industry has increasingly questioned the value of bulk sales.

The figures, issued yesterday by the Audit Bureau of Circulation, reveal that the number of actively purchased copies of the Irish Independent dropped by 19,140 a day (-11.6%), while the Irish Times added an extra seven copies daily between January and June, compared with the same period last year.

The number of actively purchased copies of the Irish Examiner rose by 2,211 a day during the first half of this year.

Both the Irish Independent and the Irish Times increased their bulk sales - in marked contrast with the Irish Examiner, which reduced its bulks during the same period.

The Independent increased its bulk sales to 18,773 copies a day, or close to six million a year, while the Irish Times bulk-sold 3,359 copies a day (up from 1,832 last year).

The Irish Examiner reduced its daily bulk sales to 650 and achieved an overall ABC figure of 57,331.

Despite its policy of heavy bulk selling as a marketing tool, the combined ABC figure for the broadsheet and compact editions of the Irish Independent fell by 16,878 copies a day (-9.3%).

The extra 29,386 compact sales have been more than outweighed by a fall of 46,264 copies a day for the broadsheet.

The overall ABC daily increase of 1,534 (+1.3%) for the Irish Times is accounted for by increased bulk sales of 1,527 a day.