'Independent' sales rise

Sales of the Independent rose by 2 per cent last month, to an average 277,000 copies a day, Monday to Saturday. The April-to-May gain - which brings to an end a period of circulation decline - came in the first month following the takeover of Newspaper Publishing (the company that owns the paper) by a consortium comprising the owners of La Repubblica and El Pais, along with Mirror Group Newspapers and three of the paper's founders.

Independent on Sunday sales in May also improved by 2 per cent over April's figure, to an average of 325,000.