Romanian newspapers continue to lose readership, show drop in sales figures

Newspapers in Romania continued the downward trend in the last quarter of 2011, according to the latest indicators posted by the Romanian Bureau for Circulation Audit (BRAT).

The gap in newspapers’ sales is even more visible when making a year-on-year analysis. In the case of some publications in the quality category, sales plummeted even by 50 percent or more.

 Quality newspapers

• Romania Libera, leader in the category of quality newspapers, posted sales of 37,722 copies per appearance in October, dropping from 40,233 copies the previous year. In November, the daily sold 37,238 copies while in December, the number of copies dropped to 36,388 compared to 41,986 the previous year.

• Adevarul, the 2^nd in the ranking, posted in October sales of 27,762 copies on average, (which represents a sharp drop compared to the previous year when it sold 89,479 copies on average). In November, Adevarul sold 24,708 copies, also a drop from the previous year, when it posted average sales of 72,988 copies. Last but not least, in December 2011, Adevarul sold 26,633 (while in December 2010 it sold 63,553 copies).

•  Jurnalul National comes 3rd in the quality papers chart with approximate sales in October 2011 of 24,557 copies (in October 2010 it sold 39,960 copies). In November last year, the paper’s sales grew to 26,563 copies (in November 2010, it sold 51,381 copies). In December 2011, sales went down to 21,227 copies (while in December 2010 it sold 52,856).

•  Evenimentul Zilei holds the 4^th position, with average sales of 15,076 copies in October 2011 (compared to 18,301 in October 2010). In November last year, the daily sold 14,867 copies (compared to 18,521 the previous year) while in December 2011, Evenimentul Zilei sold 15,230 copies (compared to 17,769 in December 2010).
  
  Tabloids

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• Click! is still leader of sales on the tabloid market, posting average sales of 153,403 copies in October last year (still down y-o-y, from 212,374). In November 2011, Click! posted 157,346 sold copies (down from 215,301 the previous year) while in December it sold on average 153,031 copies (from 198,978 copies in December 2010).

•  Libertatea ranks 2nd on the tabloid market with 96,863 copies sold on average in October (compared to 131,612 in October 2010). In November 2011, 93,813 copies were sold (down from 127,793 copies sold compared to November 2010). Last but not least, in December 2011, Libertatea sold 100,232 copies (compared to 121,304 in December 2010).

•  CanCan tabloid comes in 3^rd with average sales of 34,908 copies per appearance in October 2011 (compared to 51,968 copies sold in October 2010). In November 2011, the tabloid sold 32,416 copies, compared to 50,466 copies in November 2010. Finally, in December last year, CanCan sold on average 30,928 copies (compared to 42,755 in December 2010)
  Otilia Haraga