The “Island Of Ireland” report was released today charting the path of Irish Newspapers since the beginning of the year and comparing them to the same period in 2008. No prizes for guessing the outcome. First off I will have a look at the market overall, which as you can see, has dropped nearly 100,000 copies in the year or 4.6%. The Sunday market contributed for almost half of the decline and only one paper managed to increase its circulation (above a single % digit).
| 2008 | 2009 | Diff | Diff | ||
| Jan-Jun | Jan-Jun | ‘000 | % | ||
| Total Sunday | 1,237,709 | 1,182,595 | -55,114 | -4.4% | |
| Total Morning | 681,629 | 653,304 | -40,382 | -5.9% | |
| Total Evening | 105,276 | 95,379 | -9,897 | -9.4% | |
| Total Market | 2,024,614 | 1,931,278 | -93,336 | -4.6% |
In percentage terms its the evening market that’s taking a pasting – but it’s not alone in any of the cities around the world that still have an evening edition. 
The market is now back to levels last seen a decade ago. Revenue wise (and ignoring the odd cover price rise) the market is back €36m – now worth a total of aboyt €455m.
