Readership Figures Cheer for the Sunday Herald

After having seen its average circulation saw drop through the 30,000 mark during April, there is good news on the readership front for the Sunday Herald. Drawing on data covering the 12 months between April last year and March this year, the National Readership Survey says the newspaper's readership has increased by 46,000.

According to the survey, the paper's readership increased to an average 171,000 between April last year and three months ago, compared to 125,000 during the previous 12 months.

There was also an increase for its daily sister title, The Herald, which saw its readership increase from and average 145,000 to 152,000.

Edinburgh rival, The Scotsman, also enjoyed an increase in average readership: up 23,000 to 154,000.

The Scotsman’s Sunday sister, Scotland on Sunday, also enjoyed a rise: by 9000 to 199,000.

According to recent circulation figures, issued by the Audit Bureau of Circulation, the average sales of The Herald and The Scotsman fell through the 50,000 and 40,000 barriers, respectively, during April.

In terms of readership, the country's second biggest-selling daily newspaper, the Daily Record, saw its April 2010-March 2011 average readership fall from 952,000 to 884,000. There are no figures available for The Scottish Sun, Scotland's biggest-selling daily newspaper. Meanwhile, Scotland's biggest-selling Sunday newspaper, the Sunday Mail, saw its average readership figure drop from 1,118,000 to 1,063,000 between April last year and March this year.

Elsewhere, the National Readership Survey data reveals a readership drop for The Press and Journal (from 214,000 to 169,000), an increase for The Courier (up 4000 to 169,000) a drop for the Evening Times (by 2000 to 144,000) and an increase for the Sunday Post (by 1000 to 833,000).

Full details of the results can be found at the NRS website.