The Mail & Guardian has shown impressive growth in circulation from January to March this year, according to Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC) figures released this week.
The M&G‘s ABC circulation figure for the period was 42 116 — higher than figures for Business Day (41 623) and the Sunday Independent (42 001).
This means the newspaper’s circulation grew by 6,2%, even though the sector (weekly newspapers) shrank by 3,5%. The sector for weekend newspapers shrank by 8,1%.
Dickon Jayes, M&G circulations manager, commented: ”Thanks to the efforts of the M&G‘s excellent editorial team, the M&G is now the biggest quality newspaper in the country, as we now circulate more copies than both Business Day and the Sunday Independent.
Business Day‘s circulation dropped by 0,4%, and the Sunday Independent‘s grew by 1,2%.
”The first three months of 2006 were very newsworthy,” Jayes said. ”Our editorial team took maximum advantage of the news stories in this period, while the marketing and circulation teams exposed more people to our newspaper and expanded the M&G‘s market penetration, making the newspaper available to an ever-wider market.”
Jayes said the M&G has aggressively targeted subscribers, ”and our loyal readers are converting to subscribers in ever-greater numbers. We are obviously giving our readers what they want and we thank them for their continued loyalty.”
The circulation of the Financial Mail grew by 12% and it is now circulating 28 538 copies per issue. Finweek is circulating 29 003 copies per week.
Among other daily newspapers, Beeld‘s circulation increased from 101 751 copies to 103 714, the Daily Sun (selling the most newspapers in this sector) jumped from 428 809 to 452 368 and the Sowetan grew from 118 501 copies to 131 458.
Die Burger‘s circulation dropped from 104 538 to 95 208, however.
The Sunday Times still rules the roost overall, selling 504 013 copies, up from 492 325.