THE IRISH TIMES had an average 317,000 daily readers in 2008 and remains the most-read morning paper in Dublin, new research shows.

In the same period the Irish Independenthad 520,000 daily readers and the Irish Examinerhad 202,000daily readers. The Irish Daily Mailhad 139,000 daily readers.

The findings of the Joint National Readership Survey (JNRS), which concludes that most national papers lost readers last year, show that readership of The Irish Times declined by 8,000 or 0.3 per cent last year when compared with 2007. The research shows that 9 per cent of adults read the paper in 2008.

Readership of the Irish Independentdropped by 50,000 or 1.6 per cent in the year and readership of the Irish Examiner declined by 65,000 or 1.9 per cent. Readership of the Irish Daily Mailrose 22,000 or 0.6 per cent.

Th e Irish Timeshad 172,000 daily readers in Dublin, surpassing the Irish Independent's 135,000daily readers in Dublin.

The research shows The Irish Timeshad 137,000 AB readers last year, 43.2 per cent of its total readership. This compares with the Irish Independent's 93,000AB readers, 17.9 per cent of its total.

In the "red top" morning tabloid market, the Irish Daily Starincreased its daily readership by 41,000 or 1 per cent to 482,000. The readership of the Irish Sunfell by 8,000 to 301,000 and readership of Irish Daily Mirrorrose 2,000 to 206,000.

In the Sunday market, weekly readership of the Sunday Independentdeclined by 78,000 to 941,000 and the Sunday World dropped 3,000 readers to achieve a weekly readership of 919,000. The Irish edition of the Sunday Timeshad 337,000 weekly readers, down by 26,000 year-on-year, and weekly readership of the Irish Mail on Sundayrose 16,000 to 268,000.

Weekly readership of the Sunday Tribunedeclined by 66,000 to 152,000. Readership of the Tribunewas surpassed by the Sunday Business Post, which had 155,000 weekly readers after a loss of 4,000 readers.

The Irish edition of the News of the World Sundaytitle had 569,000 weekly readers, down 2,000 year-on-year, and the Irish Daily Star on Sunday had 207,000 weekly readers, a gain of 29,000 readers.

The Irish Sunday Mirrorhad 137,000 weekly readers, down 25,000 in the year, and the Irish Sunday Peoplehad 78,000 weekly readers, down 16,000 from 2007.

A gain of 2,000 readers brought daily readership of the Evening Heraldto 317,000.

The freesheet Herald AMtitle had 100,000 daily readers and the freesheet Metro, part-owned by The Irish Times Ltd, had 90,000daily readers. Readership of these titles was not measured in JNRS research for 2007.