'Independent' circulation continues to grow

For the seventh successive month, The Independent has registered significant circulation growth. The audited figures for April, released yesterday, show that the paper's average daily sale has climbed to 260,259, the highest figure since October 1997 and a rise of 15.3 per cent on the same period last year.

For the seventh successive month, The Independent has registered significant circulation growth. The audited figures for April, released yesterday, show that the paper's average daily sale has climbed to 260,259, the highest figure since October 1997 and a rise of 15.3 per cent on the same period last year.

Meanwhile, The Guardian is down 4.4 per cent on April last year and The Daily Telegraph is down 0.8 per cent. The Times is up 1.9 per cent year-on-year.

The Independent's circulation has grown rapidly since the launch of our compact edition last September, and the paper's share of the quality market stands at its highest for seven years.

From Monday, The Independent will become Britain's first quality paper to be published exclusively in compact format. Since September last year, we offered the choice of between broadsheet and compact format, and the response from readers has been overwhelmingly in favour of the compact.

By the time we discontinued the broadsheet yesterday, the compact edition represented more than 90 per cent of our circulation. And sales of our Saturday paper, which was launched in compact-only format earlier this year, are up 20 per cent year-on-year.

These figures further underline the success of The Independent, coming a month after the paper was named National Newspaper of the Year in the British Press Awards, and in the same week that the National Readership Survey revealed unprecedented increases in readership of the paper. Total readership was up 31 per cent to 702,000, while readers in the 15-44 age bracket rose 40 per cent and women readers increased by 47 per cent. At the same time, all other quality papers registered falls in readership

Ivan Fallon, chief executive of Independent News and Media (UK), said: "This impressive set of figures and our recent awards underpin the progress the paper has made, editorially and commercially, over these past months. In today's package, you will find a booklet marking our Newspaper of the Year award, which I believe illustrates the quality of our coverage and the range of opinion that we deliver day after day. I hope you enjoy it, and thank all readers, new and old, for their continued support."