NRS PADD: July 2012 – June 2013

The National Readership Survey has today released its latest newsbrand figures combining both print and online for the July 2012 to June 2013 period.

Overall, all newsbrands saw a decline in readership, with the exception of the Daily Mirror, up 6.6% and the Sun, up 0.4%.

Though barely anything between the two newsbrands’ digital platforms, with both sitting around the 4.5 million mark, the Sun’s print readership is almost double that of the Daily Mirror’s, with the Murdoch owned tabloid reaching a combined net print and website total of just over 17 million.

The biggest losses belonged to the only three newsbrands that saw increases in the last reported period – the Financial Times (-11.4%), the Daily Express (-9.7%) and the Independent (-9.5%).

The Daily Mail continues to dominate all titles with a combined print and digital readership figure of over 18 million – despite seeing a -4.2% decline compared with the last period. The newsbrands’ print and digital platforms are less evenly split this time, with digital readership dropping almost one million to 9.9 million per month, compared to 11.2 million print readers.

At just one million readers behind, the Daily Mail’s main rival the Sun looks to remain a strong competitor, however the introduction of a paywall earlier this month is expected to disrupt online readership significantly in future.

Early reports from Experian already show that the Sun+’s 1.81% July web market share dropped to 0.81% on 1 August, and between 1 August and 11 August experienced an overall fall of 36%.

However, the Sun’s readership figures show that the majority of its readers lie in print, 14.2 million – over three times the amount of online readers.

The Daily Mirror was the only other title to see any growth across both platforms, up 6.6% – the highest of all the titles – with a strong print readership at 7.6 million per month and 4.5 million online.

Both the Daily Telegraph and the Times experienced overall declines, down -2.2% and -2.5%, respectively. The Daily Telegraph, dominated by online readership, introduced a metered paywall earlier this year, while the Times, dominated by print readership, has operated behind a full paywall for over three years, leaving it with with just over half a million monthly readers.

The Guardian.co.uk is the best read online newsbrand with over 10.3 million monthly readers. With the printed product thrown in, the newsbrand currently boasts a healthy net print and website total of just under 12.4 million.

The newsbrand was down just -0.6% overall, and remains in the third spot behind the Daily Mail and the Sun.