The Herald & Times Group, publisher of The Herald, Sunday Herald, and heraldscotland.com, today celebrates a double success in audience figures.

Firstly, online audience and subscriber growth have continued to grow and The Herald's total paid readership is up year-on-year.

Although January-June 2014 average print circulation has slipped back by 8% year-on-year, online audiences have increased by 49%, resulting in a total audience increase of 39% to 2.27 million each month.

With paid-for subscriptions to heraldscotland.com rising by 135% and mobile app subscriptions increasing by 269% year-on-year to July 2014, The Herald has also enjoyed continuing growth in paid readership across both print and online.

Secondly, the Sunday Herald is the only paper in Scotland to increase readership of its print format in the six months to June 2014, according to ABC figures released today.

The Sunday Herald enjoyed a 1% growth in average weekly sales in Jan-Jun 2014. Internal figures for July and early August 2014 show this rate of growth increasing further, to 13.5% year-on-year for the first two weeks in August, which equates to over 28,000 copies sold.

Sunday Herald editor Richard Walker said the paper's choice to become the first media backer of Scottish independence helped, along with the launch in May of a new glossy magazine.

Herald & Times managing director Tim Blott said: "We place our readers at the heart of our development strategy and will continue to provide news and content through whichever platforms they prefer.

"What is interesting to note is that, despite a tendency by the media to report with alacrity stories of its own demise, we at Herald & Times Group are seeing a significant increase in paid readership overall."