'The National' leads in newspaper sales

Despite frequent offloads by Air Niugini, The National continues to be PNG’s best-selling newspaper for the first quarter (January-March) of this year. ccording to the latest report released by the Audit Bureau of Circulation (ABC), the average daily circulation of The National for the period was 26,450 copies, ahead of the Post-Courier which recorded 25,799.

The National overtook Post-Courier in the second quarter of last year to become PNG’s nambawan newspaper with an average daily circulation of 29,706. ABC said that during the same period, Post-Courier’s circulation was about 4,000 copies less. In the third quarter of last year, during which PNG held the general election, The National increased its circulation further to 30,632 while the Post-Courier also increased to 27,488.

The National relies entirely on Air Niugini and road transport operators to deliver newspapers outside of Port Moresby and Lae. The newspaper is frequently offloaded by Air Niugini along with other cargo, and the late arrivals have impacted on circulation, particularly in the past few months.

In the urban centres of Port Moresby, Lae, Mt Hagen and Goroka, The National continues to be the more popular paper.