Good news on three fronts has sent a buzz around The Independent and The Independent on Sunday, according to managing director Terry Grote.
He has been able to report that three key indicators of newspaper performance – circulation, readership and advertising market share – have all made “considerable” progress.
Last week’s National Readership Survey showed the daily recorded a 42 per cent increase in readers over the past year, outperforming all its broadsheet rivals. The Guardian rose 1.9 per cent, The Times was up 17.5 per cent and The Daily Telegraph lost 0.7 per cent of readers. IoS was also said to be benefiting from recent investment in extra pages and supplements.
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The increase came as no surprise, said Grote, because circulation was also moving in the right direction.
Forthcoming ABC releases were expected to show full-rate sales of both papers at their highest level for eight months.
He described advertising market share figures released last week by MMS (the Media Monitoring Services) as “storming”.
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While the quality daily market saw a reduction of 1.7 per cent in display advertising year on year, The Independent had a rise of 18.4 per cent, capturing 21.7 per cent of the market.
The Times, The Guardian and The Daily Telegraph all saw display advertising fall with the latter hardest hit with a drop of 9.4 per cent.
The IoS was the only quality Sunday to report a rise – 10.6 per cent – in a market that fell by 5.7 per cent. The Sunday Telegraph share was down by 15.2 per cent.
Grote told Press Gazette: “To have all three accepted industry standards recording this level of success is a true reflection of the current spirit running throughout all departments at both titles.”
By Jean Morgan
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