THE IRISH Timesachieved a record average daily readership of 364,000 in the 12 months to the end of June 2009, according to the latest JNRS readership figures to be published today.
This represented an increase of 45,000, or 14.1 per cent, on the 319,000 readership figure achieved in the 2007/08 survey.
The previous highest figure reported by The Irish Timeswas 347,000 in the 2003/04 report.
The JNRS survey, which is conducted by Lansdowne Market Research, shows that a record 3.1 million Irish people are now regular newspaper readers. That’s an increase of more than 64,000 in the past 12 months and comes against a background of declining sales across the industry as a whole.
“We’re really pleased with these results and I hope they will give everyone in the industry a lift at what is a difficult time,” said Frank Cullen, co-ordinating director of National Newspapers of Ireland (NNI).
The Irish Independentrecorded a readership of 555,000 in the latest report compared with 508,000 in the previous period.
The Cork-based Irish Examinersaw its readership decline to 210,000 in the 12 months to the end of June from 238,000 a year earlier.
Among the tabloids, the Irish Daily Star remains the clear leader with a readership of 462,000. This was 2,000 ahead of its performance in the 2007/08 report.
The Star's figure was more than twice the level of the Irish Daily Mirror,while the I rish Sunattracted 311,000 readers in the 12-month period.
The Irish Daily Mail, meanwhile, had a readership of 146,000 compared with 131,000 a year earlier.
The Evening Herald'sreadership rose by 4,000 to 321,000.
The Irish Timescontinues to outperform the Irish Independent in the Dublin market.
The Irish Times's readership figure in the capital was 251,000 compared with the Independent's 203,000.
In terms of ABC1 readers, The Irish Times attracted 297,000 readers – 81.6 per cent of the paper's total figure.
The Irish Independent had an ABC1 figure of 301,000.
Among the weekend newspapers, the Sunday Independentclimbed above the 1 million mark again.
The paper had a readership of 1.003 million compared with 972,000 a year earlier.
The next best performer was the Sunday World with a figure of 883,000, which was down on the 932,000 it recorded in the 2007/08 survey.
The Irish News of the World,a tabloid controlled by Rupert Murdoch, saw its readership decline during the period to 529,000 from 566,000.
The Sunday Times increased to 371,000 from 343,000.
The readership of the Sunday Business Post, owned by Cork-based Thomas Crosbie Holdings, was flat at 162,000, while the Sunday Tribune declined by 5,000 to 172,000.
The survey found that 85 per cent of 19- to 24-year-olds regularly read a newspaper, while readership among 34- to 44-year-olds increased by 5 per cent or 28,000 on the previous year.
