Independent circulation

THE LATEST newspaper circulation figures, released yesterday, reveal further success for The Independent. Audited sales for the month of June show The Independent's daily sale at 225,516, a rise of almost 1,000 copies on the same period last year. The Independent is the only broadsheet newspaper to show a year-on-year increase, and this is the sixth successive month that the newspaper's circulation has grown.

The Independent's rise bucks the trend of the total broadsheet market, which was down 1.5 per cent. It was a particularly bad month for The Daily Telegraph, which recorded its lowest total of full-price sales since records began. These figures complete a devastating week for the Telegraph after the Press Complaints Commission censured the paper for paying Victoria Aitken, daughter of the jailed former cabinet minister, to write about her father. A senior industry figure said last night: "It will be difficult for the Telegraph to take the high moral ground again, having been found guilty by the industry of paying the daughter of a common criminal."