Slightly fewer people are reading Irish morning newspapers, but Sunday papers have made small gains, according to the latest readership research figures. They also show that most weekly magazines have lost readers.
Readership is often used by the advertising industry as it allows it to target specific markets. The circulation figures for Irish national newspapers for the last six months of 1997 are expected to be released this month. According to the director of National Newspapers of Ireland (NNI), Mr Frank Cullen, the results have been stable, with little significant change.
For the first time, the readership of regional newspapers has been measured. They have a collective weekly readership of 1,387,000.
The research was undertaken by Lansdowne Market Research on behalf of Joint National Readership Research (JNNR). It deals with the 1997 calendar year; the previous survey dealt with the period July 1996 to June 1997.
The Irish Times increased its readership since the previous survey by 1.1 per cent, or 3,000, bringing it to 286,000.
The Irish Independent lost 14,000 daily readers, a decrease of 2.3 per cent, leaving it with 598,000. The Star's readership also decreased, down by 3,000 to 373,000, while the Examiner was down by 3,000, to 219,000 each day. The Evening Herald lost 14,000 readers, leaving it with 379,000, while the Cork Evening Echo put on 4,000 readers, bringing it to 67,000.
The Sunday Independent is now read by 1,126,000 people, a decrease of 26,000. While no figures are available yet for Ireland On Sunday, it can be assumed to have taken some readers from the Sunday Independent.
The Sunday World gained 9,000 new readers and has 977,000 every week. The Sunday Tribune is now at 261,000, up 5,000.
The most impressive result was achieved by the Sunday Business Post. It is up 24,000, 22 per cent, on the previous survey, to a readership of 131,000. While circulation figures are actual sales, readership figures are based on a market survey. A whole range of factors influences the outcome: for example, smaller families might mean fewer people reading each newspaper, whereas newspapers going into larger families are read by more people.
Care has to be taken when making comparisons between newspaper types using readership figures. Sunday papers tend to have a higher number of people reading each issue than daily newspapers.
The survey categorises readers by gender, age, social group and rural and urban, as well as by geographic location.
When the detail of the figures is considered, The Irish Times has done well in most categories. It recorded an increase of 4,000 among men, and an 8,000 rise among housewives. It also increased its readership in rural areas, and among farmers with more than 50 acres. But readership decreased among adults aged 35 to 54, and in Munster. The ABC1 social groupings account for 79 per cent of its readers.
The Irish Independent lost readers in several categories. The ABC1 groups account for a total of 46.8 per cent of its readers.
The Star lost out among housewives, down 9,000, and readers aged between 15 and 24, down 10,000. It improved among people aged between 24 and 44 years, and in Munster where its readership was up by 9,000.
The Examiner's losses were among women, down 10,000, and among people aged 35 to 44, down 11,000. However, there was an 8,000 rise among men, 5,000 among people aged 15 to 19, and 7,000 among those aged 55 to 64.
Within the magazine sector, where readership has a particular significance - they traditionally have more readers per magazine than newspapers - most show decreases of varying degrees.
The exception is IT, up by 1.1 per cent to 93,000 readers. The most dramatic fall-off is suffered by Hot Press, down 24 per cent, to 44,000. The RTE Guide, while suffering a small decrease of less than 1 per cent, is still the country's most widely read magazine with 585,000 readers a week. Woman's Way was down nearly 5 per cent to 230,000, Image down 8.7 per cent to 116,000, and U magazine down 3.6 per cent to 106,000.