NRS National Newspaper Round-Up: December 2004
The daily national newspaper market as a whole saw a dip in readership in the six months to December 2004, according to the latest data from the National Readership Survey.
However, despite a number of dips in circulation, several titles managed to avoid decline and, in some cases, add substantially to their readership towards the end of the year.
The Quality market saw declines, with the Guardian and Telegraph losing 4.6% and 2.0% of their respective readerships year on year. The Telegraph ended the year amid management reshuffle, following the paper’s sale to the billionaire Barclay brothers (see Telegraph Execs Ousted As Reshuffle Continues).
However, the Independent saw an increase, adding 14.8% year on year as the paper settled into its publication as a tabloid-only title. The Times also saw a rise in readership, adding 1.5% over the same period, as the title followed the Independent‘s lead in dropping its broadsheet edition in October (see Times Confirms Tabloid Only Publication From Monday).
Elsewhere, the daily Mid Market titles also looked healthy towards the end of the year, with the Daily Express adding 4.4% to its readership year on year. November saw the paper’s owner, Richard Desmond, considering a radical relaunch of the title as a national free-sheet, believed to have been suggested as an attempt to boost the papers declining circulation figures (see Desmond Ponders Relaunching Express As Free-Sheet).
The Daily Mail saw its readership rise by 2.1% year on year in the six months to December, further securing the title’s position ahead of the Daily Express, as well as being the second most read daily national newspaper in the country, behind the Sun.
The Daily Star notched up a healthy 17.7% increase in readership year on year, bucking the trend in the Popular sector as all other daily titles suffered a decline. The Daily Record suffered the largest downturn over the same period at 15.7%.
News International’s Sun remained the market leader, with an overall readership of over 8.4 million, despite a dip of 5.2% year on year.
| National Newspaper NRS Figures – December 2004 | ||||
| Daily Titles | Jul 03-Dec 03 | Jul 04-Dec 04 | Actual Change | % Change |
| Quality | ||||
| Daily Telegraph | 2,129,000 | 2,086,000 | -43,000 | -2.0 |
| Financial Times | 421,000 | 432,000 | 11,000 | 2.6 |
| Guardian | 1,166,000 | 1,112,000 | -54,000 | -4.6 |
| Independent | 512,000 | 588,000 | 76,000 | 14.8 |
| Times | 1,631,000 | 1,656,000 | 25,000 | 1.5 |
| Mid Market | ||||
| Daily Express | 2,000,000 | 2,088,000 | 88,000 | 4.4 |
| Daily Mail | 5,634,000 | 5,753,000 | 119,000 | 2.1 |
| Popular | ||||
| Daily Mirror | 4,653,000 | 4,313,000 | -340,000 | -7.3 |
| Daily Record | 1,451,000 | 1,223,000 | -228,000 | -15.7 |
| Daily Star | 1,595,000 | 1,877,000 | 282,000 | 17.7 |
| Sun | 8,893,000 | 8,429,000 | -464,000 | -5.2 |
| Total Daily | 30,085,000 | 29,557,000 | -528,000 | -1.8 |
The nation’s Sunday titles also saw their readership figures in decline overall in the six months to December, down 2.2%, with the Popular sector seeing declines across the board. The People led the downturn with a dip of 17.2% year on year, continuing its downward spiral to fall below the 2 million mark.
The Sunday Mirror was also hard hit, losing 8.9% in the same period. The News of the World saw a dip of 2.6% but remained the most read title in the sector, and across all of the Sunday papers, with an overall readership of just over 9 million.
Elsewhere, the Mail on Sunday performed well in the Mid Market sector, adding 6.9% to its readership while rival the Sunday Express struggled, losing 3.5% of its total in the same period.
The nation’s Quality titles were more fortunate, with the Observer seeing its readership total rise by a healthy 3.7% year on year. The increase pushes the title’s overall figure to just under 1.3 million and will please the paper’s owners, Guardian Media Group, who were understood to be considering a sell off of the title in November, following its inability to return a profit ahead of a £50 million investment in its week day stable mate, the Guardian (see GMG Considering Sell Off For Loss Making Observer).
Only the Sunday Times saw a dip in the Quality market, albeit a minor one, of 0.6% in readership. The title remains the most read Quality title, with a total of almost 3.3 million. The paper has recently made much of its CD-Rom-based supplement, The Month, issuing a special edition to celebrate its first anniversary in August (see Sunday Times Celebrates Month Birthday With Oasis Special), and, more recently, upgrading it to a DVD in order to pack in more multi-media content and video (see Sunday Times Launches The Month On DVD).
| National Newspaper NRS Figures – December 2004 | ||||
| Sunday Titles | Jul 03-Dec 03 | Jul 04-Dec 04 | Actual Change | % Change |
| Quality | ||||
| Independent On Sunday | 647,000 | 657,000 | 10,000 | 1.5 |
| Observer | 1,246,000 | 1,292,000 | 46,000 | 3.7 |
| Sunday Telegraph | 2,001,000 | 2,010,000 | 9,000 | 0.4 |
| Sunday Times | 3,307,000 | 3,288,000 | -19,000 | -0.6 |
| Mid Market | ||||
| Mail On Sunday | 6,024,000 | 6,439,000 | 415,000 | 6.9 |
| Sunday Express | 2,346,000 | 2,263,000 | -83,000 | -3.5 |
| Popular | ||||
| News Of The World | 9,296,000 | 9,056,000 | -240,000 | -2.6 |
| People | 2,406,000 | 1,991,000 | -415,000 | -17.2 |
| Sunday Mirror | 5,064,000 | 4,615,000 | -449,000 | -8.9 |
| Total Sunday | 32,337,000 | 31,611,000 | -726,000 | -2.2 |
NRS: 020 7242 8111 www.nrs.co.uk
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