FOR the second year running, the Irish News is officially the best performing regional daily newspaper in Ireland and the UK.
Figures from the Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC) covering the January-June half year show that the paper's average daily print circulation is 32,649.
And focusing on retail sales alone, stripping out bulk sales and free copies, the Irish News outperformed every other title in Britain and Ireland.
At full cover price, the Irish News now sells 32,539 copies every day - more than both the Belfast Telegraph and News Letter.
Irish News editor Noel Doran said: "During difficult times for the newspaper industry, it is essential that we maintain the highest possible standards.
"It is encouraging that we remain among the leading titles in the overall ABC list and particularly notable that the league table which excludes cut price and free copies again places us by a clear margin as the best performer in the UK regional sector."
The paper's marketing manager John Brolly thanked readers for their loyalty to the title and said it was really refreshing to see the strong performance of the Irish News and equally the growing digital copy sales of its e-paper.
He added: "Our readers have an appreciation of the trust element of our news coverage and the range of columnist opinion across news, business and sport.”
"The recent rebrand of our Saturday edition as 'Weekend', with increased food, travel, sport and opinion, has been particularly well received by readers as well as the redesign of our business pages which is an subject area of high importance."
