News publisher Johnston Press, owner of The Scotsman, said it has continued to increase readers of the i newspaper since it was acquired in April 2016 “at a rate which is ahead of management’s expectations.”

“The last week’s sales show daily circulation consistently over 300,000, peaking at 319,000 on Friday 29 June,” said the company in a stock market statement. 

“The i’s advertising revenue for the same week was also the highest it has been since the acquisition.”

The i had an average audited circulation of 270,182 during the month immediately prior to the acquisition.

Johnston said these figures showed a further increase from the week of the EU referendum, “indicating a continued desire for impartial and informative journalism, highlighting the vital role that newspapers play around major milestones for the country.”

Johnston said last week also saw a record amount of traffic to its inews.co.uk website, breaking through the 1 million page views per week barrier for the first time since its April launch with 1.65 million page views.  

“Sunday 26 June saw the highest number of page views in a day at 434,431,” said Johnston.  

“Since the website was only launched 10 weeks ago on April 14, management are encouraged by this strong start.”

Johnston said the i’s circulation and readership has steadily increased under its ownership and editorship of Oliver Duff.