NRS PADD: January – December 2012

The National Readership Survey has today released its latest figures combining both print and online for the newspaper industry, giving a complete overview of 2012.

Differing to previous versions, the latest report now includes comScore data for the online audience measurement. This means the results are not comparable to previous versions of NRS PADD; however, the figures are designed to provide a robust reference point for 2012 which can then be used for comparisons with future reports.

Covering January to December 2012, the results show the dominance of the Daily Mail as a newsbrand. With net print and online readership above 20 million each month, its closest rival, the Sun, is 2.6 million readers behind with 17.4 million people reading content across its print and digital platforms.

Naturally, when the Sunday titles are included, the figures are even higher (22 million for the Daily Mail and the Mail on Sunday), but there is no comparable data at present as the Sun Sunday did not launch until February 2012 and is not yet included in the current report.

The Guardian, The Observer and guardian.co.uk are the most read quality newspaper combination in Britain, with 13.1 million monthly readers – with online accounting for around two-thirds of the readership – followed by the Daily Telegraph and the Sunday Telegraph with 12.4 million readers combined.

In print, there is not much between the two rivals, but the Guardian.co.uk secures the newsbrand more than a million more monthly readers than the Telegraph.co.uk.

Meanwhile, the Independent titles, including the ‘i’ saw 8.3 million each month while the Times and Sunday Times – with a website behind a paywall – secured 7.6 million, but with 7.1 million in print, making it the best read print title in the quality market.

In the popular market, the Sun leads (17.4 million print and online readers, excluding its Sunday edition), followed by the Daily Mirror with 11 million monthly readers (12.6 million including the Sunday Mirror), while the Daily Star secured 4.3 million (increasing to 4.8 million with its Sunday edition).

Overall the figures show that online, in most cases, adds considerable numbers to a newsbrand’s readership figures; a growth trend evidenced in previous versions of NRS PADD and evidenced in ABC’s digital figures, which show general circulation figures.