Big news stories give newspaper sales a boost

By KARYN SCHERER

A cluster of major news events has given the newspaper industry a boost, and several have recorded circulation increases in the latest industry audit.

Sales figures covering the six months to the end of September were issued yesterday by the Audit Bureau of Circulations.

The figures show the US terrorist attacks, the financial troubles of Air New Zealand and the All Blacks' coaching turmoil helped boost average sales for several daily newspapers, but were unable to save others from decline.

Among the daily newspapers showing increases on last year were the New Zealand Herald (up 0.3 per cent to 211,117 copies a day), the Waikato Times (up 1 per cent to 41,909), Hawke's Bay Today (up 0.3 per cent to 31,824), and the Otago Daily Times (up 0.5 per cent to 43,822).

The Southland Times and the Daily News remained stable, and the Press and the Dominion fell by less than 1 per cent.

The biggest decline was shown by Wellington's Evening Post, which fell 4.3 per cent to an average of 56,143 copies.

Of the weekly papers, the Sunday News was the biggest winner, increasing average sales by 2.3 per cent to 115,419. New Truth & TV Extra increased by 2.1 per cent to 21,746, but the Sunday Star-Times fell 3.2 per cent to 200,045 copies.

The Independent Business Weekly fell 3.2 per cent to 9008 copies and the National Business Review remained steady at 14,374 copies.

Daily newspapers selling fewer than 25,000 copies and community newspapers were not included in the audit.

While most newspapers recorded increases over the previous six months, sales are regarded as seasonal and therefore more comparable with the same period the previous year.