The biggest-selling Irish weekly magazine, the RTE Guide, has recorded a 15.8 per cent drop in circulation.
ABC ?gures show that for the ?rst six months of this year the average weekly sale of the magazine was 112,160 copies, compared with 133,220 for the same period last year.
Competition from the other television listings title, TV Now, is, meanwhile, increasing. During the ?rst six months of 2003 it went up to a ?gure of 34,450.
An RTE spokesperson said the station wasn’t greatly concerned by the latest sales ?gures, pointing out that the RTE Guide was still the biggest-selling title in the Republic of Ireland. She said the main competition was now coming from the newspapers with their comprehensive TV listings. RTE’s rival Sky now gives away its magazine free to its Irish subscribers.
It has an average audited circulation of 274,000 which technically makes it the largest circulation title in the Republic but none of its copies are “actively purchased” in shops as are the copies of the RTE Guide.
By Des Cryan in Dublin
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