Up again: The Independent's sales success continues

For the fourth successive month, The Independent has registered a substantial rise in circulation. Audited monthly figures for January, released yesterday, reveal average daily sales of The Independent at 248,876, an increase of 12.1 per cent on the same period last year.

The Independent is alone among quality national newspapers in recording a year-on-year rise. The Guardian was down 6.4 per cent on January 2003, The Daily Telegraph was down 3.4 per cent, and The Times was down 1.6 per cent.

The Independent's circulation is now the highest since November 1997 and the paper's share of the quality market is 11.3 per cent, its highest since June 1996. These figures underline the success of the new compact version of The Independent, which was launched last September, initially in the London area but now expanded to become Britain's first quality compact to be available across the country.

From last Tuesday, readers in Scotland, Wales and the West, and Ireland, received the compact Independent for the first time, and early estimates suggest circulation increases of more than 25 per cent in these areas.

On 31 January, we launched the Saturday compact edition, with our new weekly travel magazine, The Traveller, and this has resulted in a sales rise of 50,000. Simon Kelner, editor-in-chief of The Independent, said yesterday: "The compact version of our paper has proved a great success, and we would like to thank readers, new and old, who have welcomed this innovative step and have quickly recognised that the smaller format does not mean any compromise of The Independent's quality or authority"

Ivan Fallon, chief executive of Independent News and Media (UK) said: "The success of the compact once again has exceeded all our expectations.

"We have achieved our strongest market share in Independent News & Media's ownership, and February is already running well ahead."