Irish Examiner readership up by 6.8%
Less than a week after the release of Audit Bureau of Circulation figures which showed increasing sales for the newspaper, the readership figures announced yesterday by the Joint National Readership Survey confirmed the growing success of the Irish Examiner.
The Lansdowne Market Research survey revealed that the paper’s readership increased by a highly impressive 6.8% last year, a rise of 14,000 to 220,000 readers a day.
The Irish Examiner’s total domination of the affluent Munster market - where our readership is 60,000 more than the COMBINED readership of the Irish Independent and the Irish Times - is backed up by further growth in Dublin and the rest of Leinster.
Irish Examiner editor Tim Vaughan said the newspaper’s award-winning and agenda-setting journalism was paying dividends in a very tangible fashion.
“We’re breaking the stories, we’re challenging those who need to be challenged, we look at things differently and we’re making a difference,” he said.
Significantly, the newspaper’s share of the high-spending ABC1 market grew by 5% during the 12-month period and its appeal also proved a hit with the discerning youth market, where readership in the key 19-24-year-old sector increased by 2%.
Once again, the survey underlined the huge and invaluable loyalty factor among Irish Examiner readers, with an amazing 80% reading no other daily newspaper. This “solus” readership figure is unmatched by any other daily newspaper and is considered a key statistic by the advertising industry.
“With a solus readership like that, anybody who advertises with us can do so with the confidence that they will reach their target market,” said Irish Examiner advertising manager Aidan Forde. Both the Irish Independent and the Irish Times have a solus readership level of only 67%.
Last year was a good one for newspapers generally, with the JNRS figures showing that an incredible 91.4% of all Irish adults read a newspaper.
The survey, covering the 12 months from January to December 2004, shows that newspapers are increasing in popularity among all sectors, including younger people, and picking up new readers all the time.
Population increases may account for some of the growth in newspaper readership, but according to National Newspapers of Ireland spokesman Frank Cullen, an improvement in what newspapers are offering is the key factor.
“Newspapers have raised their game, there’s no doubt about that,” he said.
“Our member titles have invested heavily in new printing facilities, new formats, new supplements and new colour magazines, and readers are responding.”
And while many predicted that the internet would lead to the demise of newspapers, the figures show that young people show no sign of losing interest in the print media. Over 90% of under 25s read ‘any’ newspaper, 54% read a daily and 76% read a Sunday title.
The readership survey was conducted by Lansdowne Market Research among a representative sample of the adult population by personal in-home interview, using a combination of face-to-face and self-completion questionnaires.
