The Sportsman will not post an official sales figure this month after pulling out of the Audit Bureau of Circulations’ survey.
A spokesman for the Sportsman said it had withdrawn from the audit because its circulation results were inconsistent as a result of switching distributors six weeks ago from the Telegraph Group to Advantage, owned by Associated Newspapers.
He added that circulation reports for Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland were inconsistent because Advantage and the Telegraph Group supplied different figures.
ABC figures are the industry standard and are used by advertisers as a guide to how much to pay for advertising space.
The paper was scheduled to report an ABC figure of 23,500 copies for June, up only slightly on its May circulation of 22,333.
“This is another small stepping stone in our evolution and whilst it’s a small tick up, it is disappointing that we are not able to post a higher figure,” said Jeremy Deedes, the Sportsman chairman.
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