Titles circulate 121,000 copies

Dublin's new freesheets Herald AM and Metro are distributing more than 121,000 copies between them on average each day according to new figures.

Herald AM, produced by Independent News & Media (IN&M), is distributing 66,047 copies each day, while Metro is distributing 55,196 copies on average. The figures were released yesterday by the Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC), which has audited the distribution of both titles.

The figures cover 19 issues in November. In this period, IN&M used 114 distribution points to hand out Herald AM to commuters - an average of 579 copies handed out at each distribution point on average. Metro, backed by Associated Newspapers, Metro International and The Irish Times Ltd, used 91 distribution points - with 606 copies handed out at each location.

The figures show Metro provided readers with more pages - an average of 40 pages per edition - while Herald AM had 32 pages per edition. According to ABC, 32 per cent of Herald AM was devoted to advertising content, compared to 31 per cent at Metro.

The figures for Metro and Herald AM are included in a monthly distribution report for freesheet titles in Ireland and the Britain. This shows that long established titles in the UK, like Metro London, are able to allocate over 45 per cent of their content to advertising. This suggests that Metro and Herald AM are in the early stages of development.