AMSTERDAM, 02/10/08 - The circulation of most daily newspapers in the Netherlands dropped in the second quarter. The newspapers produced by publisher PCM were hit particularly hard, the HOI Institute for Media Auditing reports.

The total circulation of De Telegraaf, including free copies, rose to more than 700,000 from more than 699,000 copies in the second quarter of 2007. The core circulation of purchased copies dropped slightly though, to over 623,000 from over 626,000 a year earlier. De Telegraaf, a newspaper with a rightwing orientation, is published by Telegraaf Media Groep (TMG).

The primarily leftwing-orientated newspapers of PCM all lost readers. De Volkskrant dropped from 240,083 to 230,171 copies, down 4.1 percent. Evening newspaper NRC Handelsblad fell from 207,831 to 199,084, a loss of 4.2 percent. The circulation of Trouw also decreased: from 93,298 to 91,306.

Het Financieele Dagblad (FD Media Groep) showed a striking climb however; the circulation in the second quarter was over 57,000 copies, a growth of 9.7 percent compared with the same period last year. A slight increase was also shown by Christian newspaper Nederlands Dagblad and the Amsterdam-focused newspaper Het Parool, HOI reported.

The circulation of the free newspaper Spits published by TMG rose from almost 447,000 to over 452,000 copies. Spits is still smaller than Metro, though. Another free newspaper is De Pers. DAG also belonged to this genre, but it ceased to exist yesterday.