The Mail & Guardian continued to move onwards and upwards in the first three months of this year, notching up impressive circulation growth between January and March.
The latest Audit Bureau of Circulation (ABC) figures, released on May 17, show that the M&G‘s circulation figure for the period was 47 133 — 5 018 copies, or 11,9%, per week more than in the same period last year.
The M&G again posted a higher overall circulation than Business Day (41 976), the Sunday Independent (42 807), Financial Mail (32 114) and Fin Week (34 374).
African, or cross-borderÂ, circulation accounts for 9% of the newspaper’s figures, and 20,4% of its circulation is subscriptions — which have increased by almost 27%.
Acting editor Drew Forrest ascribed the continuing growth to the M&G‘s position as South Africa’s premier investigative newspaper, and to editorial improvements aimed at providing a better all-round read.
‘But the signs are that the weekly newspaper market is softening,†Forrest said. ‘We expect less vigorous growth during the rest of the year.â€