Newspapers stand solid in global crisis | The Australian
AUSTRALIAN newspaper sales remained robust in the December quarter.
The Australian led the way with stronger circulation for both weekday and weekend editions.
Audit Bureau of Circulation figures for the three months to December showed The Australian increased weekday sales 1.5 per cent to 137,000 from the same time a year ago, while sales of The Weekend Australian were 3 per cent higher at 309,000.
Both editions of the newspaper have increased sales every quarter on the prior year's result since the audit bureau's reporting rules changed in July 2006.
In contrast, weekday sales of The Australian Financial Review fell 2.4 per cent this quarter to 86,158 and sales of its weekend edition fell 2.5 per cent to 93,800.
Industry group The Newspaper Works said total Australian newspaper sales dipped 2.1 per cent in December compared to the same time last year, while the combined sales of metropolitan Saturday papers was only 1.2 per cent lower.
"The results are far stronger than many industry commentators have predicted and demonstrate that newspapers continue to prove incredibly resilient," Newspaper Works chief Tony Hale said.
He said the sales results were better than expected, given the economic crisis. "The figures reinforce the important ongoing and dynamic role newspapers continue to play in the lives of Australians, who collectively buy over 20 million newspapers a week."
Sales of most state-based papers declined again in this circulation audit, although the Northern Territory News lifted weekday sales 3.6 per cent to 21,244, and the Saturday edition of Sydney's The Daily Telegraph increased sales 1.9 per cent to 325,000.
But weekday sales of Melbourne's Herald Sun fell 2.7 per cent to 515,500 and weekday sales of The Courier-Mail in Brisbane were 2.5 per cent lower at 215,383.
Similarly, weekday sales of Adelaide's The Advertiser were 4.3 per cent lower at 182,055 and weekday sales of Perth's The West Australian fell 2.7 per cent to 192,964.
Sunday newspapers also suffered, with sales of Sydney's The Sunday Telegraph and The Sun-Herald falling 2.5 per cent and 5.3 per cent respectively.
Sales of Adelaide's Sunday Mail were 5.1 per cent lower at 304,096 and sales at Brisbane's Sunday Mail were down 5.2 per cent to 551,271.
The only Sunday papers to lift sales in the December audit were The Sunday Age (up 0.5 per cent to 227,100) and The Sunday Territorian (up 3.2 per cent to 22,287).
Mr Hale said economic conditions hurt regional newspapers, where total weekday sales fell 2.4 per cent to 3.2 million.
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