Major sales boost for 'The Independent'

The successful launch of the tabloid-sized version of The Independent in the greater London area has been responsible for a major boost in sales for the paper, according to figures released yesterday.

Average daily sales of The Independent for October were 235,491, a rise of 7.7 per cent on the previous month and an increase of 6.4 per cent on October last year. This success is against a background of decline elsewhere in the quality newspaper market; in October, The Times was down 8.2 per cent year-on-year, The Guardian down 3.1 per cent and The Daily Telegraph down 6.0 per cent.

It also represents the highest daily sales figure for The Independent for two years and gives the paper its highest share of the quality market since July 1996.

Launched initially within the M25 on September 30, our compact edition averaged audited daily sales of 30,520. The compact version is on sale, alongside our broadsheet edition, Monday to Friday, at the same price of 60p.

Since the launch, we have extended the availability of the twin-format paper to the North-west of England, and, from Tuesday, the compact and broadsheet versions will be on sale in the entire Meridian TV area.