Do you want the good news, or the bad news? The latest Audit Bureau of Circulations report offers both, with the Globe and Mail posting moderate gains for the past six months, ended March 31, and the National Post dropping in circulation for the same time period.

The Woodbridge Company-owned Globe and Mail had a circulation jump of 2.52% for the period to an average of 307,482 copies from Monday to Friday. This is a better result than the paper saw last year in the same measurement period, when it dropped less than 1%.

Now for the bad news – Postmedia’s National Post saw its circulation drop 8.67% in the past six months to an average of 160,048 copies from Monday to Friday. This is compared to a 10.15% jump last year for the same time period. The paper was recently the first to release a Consolidated Media Report from ABC showcasing its digital properties.

The numbers don’t get any rosier for Postmedia in its regional markets, which saw the report’s biggest decline in circ go to its Montreal Gazette. The paper’s weekday circulation dropped 15.33%, from 173,747 in 2010 to 147,110 at the end of March this year.

On the flip side, the biggest gain for the six-month period was posted by the Chronicle-Herald in Halifax, which saw its weekday circulation jump 6.81%, from 108,070 in 2010, to 115,429 in the period ending March 31 this year.

The results of Canada’s other largest newspaper chains were released in the April CCAB report, which included Sun Media, Torstar and Transcontinental. In the report, the Toronto Star reported an average weekday circulation of 381,310, a slight drop from 2009, and the Toronto Sun posted a slight gain in that report, with 186,904 copies going out on average every weekday.