ALL five daily and Sunday newspapers in Northern Ireland have increased circulations, according to figures from the Audit Bureau of Circulations.
Best performer was the Northern Ireland edition of the Sunday World, with an increase of 3.4 per cent, up to 68,520. The Irish News was next with a 3.3 per cent increase, giving it 45,906 daily sales.
The figures are for the first six months of this year and the comparison is with the same period last year.
The Belfast Telegraph and the News Letter showed the smallest gains, both recording 0.1 per cent increase.
The Sunday Life, which previously showed remarkable increases, has slowed to an increase of 2.5 per cent for January to June over the same period last year. However, it has broken the important 100,000 barrier with sales of 101,120.
The Northern Ireland newspaper business appears to have more in common with its counterparts in the Republic than with UK regional newspapers, with which it is usually included.
Newspapers in the Republic have also experienced growth in the same period. Both markets face increasing competition from British newspapers.
In comparison with British regional newspapers, Northern Ireland's newspapers are extremely healthy. Few in Britain have recorded any gain.
The Southern Daily Echo of Southampton is the best performer, up 4.1 per cent. However, the Evening Echo of Southend for example, is down 11.2 per cent and the Bath Chronicle down 8.8 per cent.
The past year has seen several radical changes in the ownership of Northern Ireland's newspapers. The Belfast Telegraph and the Sunday Life were bought by Trinity Holdings from the Thomson Group, while the Morton group, which publishes weekly provincial newspapers all over Northern Ireland, was bought into by Scottish Radio.
The health of the market has allowed Trinity to enter tentatively the morning tabloid market, with its new Saturday Extra.
Mirror Group Newspapers bought the world's oldest newspaper, the News Letter.
The Belfast Telegraph is now printing News International titles in Northern Ireland, while Mortons print the Daily Mirror and Sunday Mirror, though this will probably change when plans for new printing facilities for the News Letter are finalised.