Romanian print media circulation and readership went down further in the first quarter of this year, according to data from the Romanian Circulation Audit Bureau (BRAT), continuing the downwards path started around two years ago.

Somehow surprisingly, the publication listed with the biggest circulation is the retailer Kaufland's flyer, that arrives every week for free in people's maiboxes, and which saw increasing circulation. Kaufland delivered 3.1 million copies per issue in the first quarter of 2012, up from 2.7 million in the first quarter of 2011.

Regular media though was not as lucky. Apart from the flyer, the TV Guide Click had the biggest circulation during the first quarter, with 242,000 units distributed, down from 383,000 in the first quarter of 2011, followed by tabloid Libertatea's week-end supplement- 165,000 copies (down from 181,000 in Q1 2011) and cooking magazine Practic in Bucatarie- 158,000 copies, down from 197,000 copies distributed per issue in the first quarter of 2011.

The first quality publication in the ranking was daily Romania Libera, with 32,300 distributed copies per issue during this period, down from 37,500 per issue in the last quarter of 2011. The nosedive was even bigger compared to the first quarter of 2011, when Romania Libera distributed 41,800 copies per issue.

The best sold sports newspaper was Gazeta Sporturilor, with a circulation of 32,100 copies per issue, slightly down from 33,800 in the last quarter of 2011. Year on year, the drop was bigger, as in the first three months of 2011, the daily distributed almost 41,000 copies per issue.

Business daily Ziarul Financiar distributed only 9,100 copies per issue, down from 12,700 in the last quarter of 2011, and from 13,000 in the first three months of the same year. Weekly magazine Business Magazin was also down to 5,400 copies per issue distributed , compared to 8,700 in the last quarter of 2011, and to 9,700 in the first quarter of 2011. Both publications are published by Mediafax group.

Forbes, published by Adevarul Holding, has 5,500 copies distributed per issue, down from 7,900. Forbes had a bad first quarter in 2011 too, when it distributed 5,800 copies per issue.

Biz, published by an independent media company, was among the few to actually increase the number of distributed copies per issue, 8,000 in the first quarter of 2012, compared to 7,800 in the last three months of 2011, and slightly down from 8,100 in the first quarter of 2011.

Corina Chirileasa, corina@romania-insider.com