Sundays suffer as newspaper circulation falls

Most major newspapers lost circulation over the past six months, with Sunday newspapers leading the way.

Circulation figures issued by the Audit Bureau of Circulations show that in the six months to the end of March, sales of the Sunday Star-Times were 4.3 per cent down on the previous year, and the Sunday News was down 5 per cent.

Although the New Zealand Herald's average net circulation fell by 1.6 per cent to 209,898, it strengthened its position as the country's largest paper, increasing its lead over the Sunday Star-Times to 11,363.

Almost all other daily newspapers lost circulation, by an average 1.4 per cent. The exceptions were Hawke's Bay Today (up 0.7 per cent) and the Southland Times (up 1.4 per cent).

The weekly Independent fell 12.3 per cent to 8976, and the National Business Review rose 0.9 per cent to 14,398.

Wilson and Horton daily newspapers took the top five spots on the ladder for average net circulation growth
among smaller papers in the year to March 31.

The Northern Advocate showed the strongest growth - up 3 per cent - in the statistics for papers with a daily
circulation of less than 25,000 copies.

The Wanganui Chronicle (up 2.2 per cent), the Bay of Plenty Times (2.1 per cent), the Evening News,
Dannevirke (2 per cent), and the Oamaru Mail (1 per cent) filled the other four spots.