i outsells the Indy by 60,000 copies

Alexander Lebedev's 20p daily i is now selling about 60,000 more copies than its sister title The Independent, according to the latest ABCs figures.

i: strong results in February's ABCs
i: strong results in February's ABCs

The cut-price paper recorded a 31,650 month-on-month jump in circulation to record an ABC figure of 175,714 in February.

February marks only the second month that i has been audited since its launch in October last year. in January was 133,472.

which ran through half of January and all of February, is the likely driver behind the circulation hike.

The title gave away 7,700 bulk copies (copies publishers sell for a nominal fee to airlines and hotels, which are then given away free), which helped increase its overall figure.

The i's sister title The Independent registered a circulation of 182,513 in February, but this includes 73,701 bulk copies.

If bulk copies are discounted from both titles, the i's circulation is around 60,000 more.

In total, however, the Independent's two papers now distribute in excess of 350,000 papers every day. A positive outcome for the company whose decision to launch i was questioned in some quarters.

Across the rest of the national press, The Sun was the biggest faller out of the red-tops, dropping 6.11% month on month to 2,818,344, a 5.19% fall year on year.

The Daily Mirror and The Daily Star, meanwhile, lost less than 20,000 readers each to report respective circulations of 1,177,220 and 718,478.

News International-owned The Times again showed no sign that its website paywall move is driving readers to the printed issue of the title. The Times circulation fell 2.47% on the month to 445,962.

The Telegraph fell 3.51% to 628,338 while The Guardian dropped 5.98% to 262,612.

The 50p priced Daily Mail and 45p priced Daily Express dropped 3.09% and 3.09% respectively to 2,070,625 and 623,603 copies respectively.

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