PAMCo: The Times leads strong newsbrand growth

The latest cross-platform audience figures for UK newsbrands illustrate a healthy and growing market, as almost all titles record monthly readership growth.

According to PAMCo – which shows ‘total brand reach’ by combining print and digital across different devices – 12 of the 13 national titles reported period-on-period growth, while The Daily Record recorded no change.

Of those, all titles except The Evening Standard increased their monthly reach via mobile phone.

The period’s best performing title overall was the Times, which saw its total brand reach shoot up 25.1% PoP to 11.5m – an increase of more than 2 million readers. The title, which sits in the quality market, also surged 43.1% year-on-year.

Despite its hard paywall model, the Times saw its most substantial growth in mobile phone readership, which leaped 53.9% PoP and 164.1% YoY to 7.1m. It also maintains a loyal print readership of just under 4.2m.

Also in the quality market, the Independent overtook the Guardian as the market leader – despite no longer existing in print – after growing its reach over the period by 12.2% to 24.6m, nearly 3 million additional readers. The title was also up 11.7% YoY.

Meanwhile, the Guardian grew 1% PoP but declined -3.7% YoY to a total monthly reach of 24.3m, following losses in both tablet and print.

In the popular market, the Sun – which has the highest reach of any national title – also recorded positive growth, with a 9.4% PoP and 26.7% YoY jump to a readership of 37.1m. Like the majority of titles, the Sun was particularly strong on mobile phone.

Elsewhere in the popular market, the Mirror was up 5.8% PoP to 29.4m, while freebies The Metro and The Evening Standard were up 10.5% to 27.8m and 2.1% to 15.3m, respectively.

The combined audience of national newsbrands in both print and digital now sits at 46 million people a month and 27 million daily readers, according to newsbrand marketing body Newsworks.

A full breakdown for each title can be found in the tables below.