NRS National Newspaper Round-Up: May 2005
Daily Newspaper Market
The majority of the nation’s daily newspapers turned in a poor performance in the six months Dec’04-May ’05, with just four titles managing to increase readership. As a whole, the daily newspaper market lost 5.0% readers year on year
Quality Daily Titles
The Guardian continued to perform well, increasing its readership by a massive 18.4% year on year, giving it the largest growth of all the qualities during the period. The paper will be hoping to increase this yet further with its shift to compact due to take place in the autumn (see Guardian To Downsize Early, Observer To Follow). The Times attracted more readers as well, rising by 17.8% over the same period, to command a readership of 1.8 million.
The Financial Times continued its downward trend, losing 11% of its readers to give it a total of 420,000. Elsewhere, the Independent also shed readers by 8% year on year, while the Daily Telegraph retained its position as the nation’s preferred quality daily with a 0.7% increase helping to maintain a readership of over 2.2 million.
Mid Market Daily Titles
The mid market sector saw mixed results in May, with the Daily Express losing 3.4% of its readership, while the Daily Mail continued to gain, adding 4% in the same period, to total just over 5.6 million readers.
Popular Daily Titles
The popular market performed poorly over May, with declines seen across the board. The Daily Mirror saw the biggest loss of readers, dipping by 16.7% year on year to take its readership total down to 4.17 million.
The Daily Record continued the downwards trend, losing 10.3% of its readers, while the Sun also lost out, dipping by 10.5% year on year, to command a readership of just over 8 million. Despite its decline, however, the Sun still remains the nation’s favoured daily newspaper.
The Daily Star also lost readers during May, going down by 6.2% and now attracting almost 1.78 million readers.
| National Newspaper NRS Figures – May 2005 | ||||
| Daily Titles | Dec 03-May 04 | Dec 04-May 05 | Actual Change | % Change |
| Quality | ||||
| Daily Telegraph | 2,202,000 | 2,217,000 | 15,000 | 0.7 |
| Financial Times | 472,000 | 420,000 | -52,000 | -11.0 |
| Guardian | 1,049,000 | 1,242,000 | 193,000 | 18.4 |
| Independent | 696,000 | 640,000 | -56,000 | -8.0 |
| Times | 1,537,000 | 1,811,000 | 274,000 | 17.8 |
| Mid Market | ||||
| Daily Express | 2,089,000 | 2,018,000 | -71,000 | -3.4 |
| Daily Mail | 5,415,000 | 5,632,000 | 217,000 | 4.0 |
| Popular | ||||
| Daily Mirror | 5,013,000 | 4,176,000 | -837,000 | -16.7 |
| Daily Record | 1,454,000 | 1,304,000 | -150,000 | -10.3 |
| Daily Star | 1,904,000 | 1,786,000 | -118,000 | -6.2 |
| Sun | 8,959,000 | 8,017,000 | -942,000 | -10.5 |
| Total Daily | 30,790,000 | 29,263,000 | -1,527,000 | -5.0 |
Sunday Newspaper Market
The UK’s Sunday newspaper market also saw readership decline, with a 3.8% dip year on year for the market overall.
Quality Sunday Titles
The quality sector, however, enjoyed a healthy performance during May, with the Independent on Sunday adding a healthy 13.7% of readers and the Observer gaining 12.8% year on year.
The Sunday Times increased its reader base by 11.6% in the same period, taking its total up to over 3.6 million and making it the nation’s most popular quality Sunday paper. The Sunday Telegraph also added readers, gaining 1.9% year on year and attracting just over 2 million people to its publication.
Mid Market Daily Titles
Elsewhere, the Mail on Sunday added 3.5% year on year to total 6.3 million, while the Sunday Express also increased its readership, up 1.2% to 2.27 million.
Popular Sunday Titles
The depression across the nation’s popular Sunday titles was worst felt by the People, which shed a massive 18.7% of its readership year on year, pushing its total down to just under 2 million.
The Sunday Mirror also slid, losing 11.5% of its total, taking it down to 4.56 million. Meanwhile, despite dropping by 11.4% year on year, the News of the World keeps its position as the UK’s favoured Sunday paper, with a readership of 8.5 million.
| National Newspaper NRS Figures – May 2005 | ||||
| Sunday Titles | Dec 03-May 04 | Dec 04-May 05 | Actual Change | % Change |
| Quality | ||||
| Independent On Sunday | 672,000 | 764,000 | 92,000 | 13.7 |
| Observer | 1,117,000 | 1,260,000 | 143,000 | 12.8 |
| Sunday Telegraph | 2,075,000 | 2,114,000 | 39,000 | 1.9 |
| Sunday Times | 3,284,000 | 3,664,000 | 380,000 | 11.6 |
| Mid Market | ||||
| Mail On Sunday | 6,123,000 | 6,339,000 | 216,000 | 3.5 |
| Sunday Express | 2,248,000 | 2,275,000 | 27,000 | 1.2 |
| Popular | ||||
| News Of The World | 9,613,000 | 8,519,000 | -1,094,000 | -11.4 |
| People | 2,427,000 | 1,974,000 | -453,000 | -18.7 |
| Sunday Mirror | 5,159,000 | 4,568,000 | -591,000 | -11.5 |
| Total Sunday | 32,718,000 | 31,477,000 | -1,241,000 | -3.8 |
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