Herald maintains title as biggest selling daily

The New Zealand Herald has maintained its position as the country's biggest selling daily paper in the latest ABC circulation figures released yesterday.

In the six months to March 31 the Herald sold an average of 200,309 copies a day - more than the next two biggest papers put together. The result is down slightly from 201,254 at the last audit to September last year and 204,549 a year ago.

The Herald on Sunday edged up by 2117 papers from six months ago to a circulation of 93,193. The result 12 months ago was 101,355 which included special offers during the period of the paper's launch.

The Weekend Herald is not separately audited but remains New Zealand's largest single paper both in sales and readership.

In the second half of last year, Nielsen Media Research reported 532,000 weekend newspaper readers in Auckland aged 15 and over and of those, 85 per cent read the Weekend Herald and Herald on Sunday.

Other results saw Wellington's Dominion Post record 98,251, up 19 papers from a year ago, the Press, Christchurch, stable at 92,465 and the Otago Daily Times down slightly at 43,246.

The Sunday Star-Times fell about 2700 from 12 months ago to 200,991 and the Sunday News was down nearly 6000 to 95,546.