NRS National Newspaper Round-Up: September 2007
Daily Newspaper Market
In the six months to September, the daily newspaper market showed an overall fall in readership of 0.7% year on year, although some titles did manage to post healthy rises in their reader numbers.
For the Quality dailies, only one title managed to record year on year growth.
In the Mid-Market, although both the Daily Mail and the Daily Express lost readers for the period, the express was the harder hit of the two.
In the Popular sector, meanwhile, the Daily Star added around 9.5% to its readership.
Quality Daily Titles
The Independent enjoyed an increase in its readership of 5.5% year on year, taking its total to more 772,000.
However, there was a relatively large fall in reader numbers for the Daily Telegraph, of more than 245,000, or 11.1%, although its total remains healthy at almost two million readers.
The Guardian and the Times were both down year on year also, by 7.5% and around 6.5% respectively.
The Times now has a total readership figure of more 1.6 million, whilst the Guardian‘s rests at just over 1.1 million.
The price of the weekday and Saturday editions of the Guardian increased by 10p in September, with the Saturday edition now selling at £1.50, whilst the weekday paper sells for 80p (see Guardian Cover Price Increases).
Mid-Market Daily Titles
Both Mid-Market titles saw their NRS figure fall year on year for the period to September.
The Daily Mail shed almost 30,000 readers, leaving its total at around 5.2 million, whilst the Daily Express lost 110,000 readers. Its NRS figure now stands at 1.6 million.
Popular Daily Titles
The Daily Record was the only Popular daily title featured to have recorded a year on year fall in its readership.
Its readership dropped by 1%, to take it to around 1.1 million.
The Daily Mirror, the Sun and the Daily Star all enjoyed year on year growth in readership.
The Daily Mirror‘s readership rose almost 1.5% to more than 3.8 million, whilst the Sun added around 2.5%, giving it a total of almost 7.9 million readers.
The Daily Star added around 9.5% to its readership, giving it a total of over 1.6 million.
London Free Papers
The London evening freesheets, thelondonpaper and the London Lite released their second set of NRS figures today, with thelondonpaper going ahead of its rival by around 3,000 readers.
thelondonpaper‘s readership stands at 861,000, while the London Lite‘s is 858,000.
| National Newspaper NRS Figures – Apr 07-Sep 07 | ||||
| Daily Titles | Apr 06-Sep 06 | Apr 07-Sep 07 | Actual Change | % Change |
| Quality | ||||
| Daily Telegraph | 2,219,000 | 1,972,000 | -247,000 | -11.1 |
| Guardian | 1,222,000 | 1,130,000 | -92,000 | -7.5 |
| Independent | 732,000 | 772,000 | 40,000 | 5.5 |
| Times | 1,735,000 | 1,618,000 | -117,000 | -6.7 |
| Mid Market | ||||
| Daily Express | 1,717,000 | 1,607,000 | -110,000 | -6.4 |
| Daily Mail | 5,301,000 | 5,272,000 | -29,000 | -0.5 |
| Popular | ||||
| Daily Mirror | 3,765,000 | 3,813,000 | 48,000 | 1.3 |
| Daily Record | 1,153,000 | 1,141,000 | -12,000 | -1.0 |
| Daily Star | 1,486,000 | 1,626,000 | 140,000 | 9.4 |
| Sun | 7,675,000 | 7,857,000 | 182,000 | 2.4 |
| Total Daily | 27,005,000 | 26,808,000 | -197,000 | -0.7 |
Sunday Newspaper Market
The Sunday newspaper market fell by almost 4% for the period to September, a decline in real terms of almost 1.2 million.
The Sunday Telegraph suffered a decline of more than 15% year on year, leaving it with a total readership of just under two million.
There was better news for the Sunday Mirror in the Popular sector, which added more than 125,000 readers.
Quality Sunday Titles
The Independent On Sunday was the only one of our featured titles in the Quality sector to record a year on year increase, up around 2.5% to almost 845,000 readers.
The Observer was down by around 10%, to 1.3 million readers, while the Sunday Times fell by more than 6.5% year on year to leave it with almost 3.3 million readers.
The Sunday Telegraph suffered a year on year downturn of 301,000 readers, leaving it with a total readership figure of just under 1.7 million.
Mid-Market Sunday Titles
Both Mid-Market Sundays were down year on year, the Mail On Sunday by around 5.5% and the Sunday Express by more than 9.5%.
Mail On Sunday now has 5.8 million readers, while the Sunday Express has 1.8 million.
Popular Sunday Titles
The only title in the Popular sector to suffer a decline in readers was the People, shedding almost 185,000 year on year, leaving it with a total of 1.6 million.
The Daily Star Sunday‘s total remained static year on year at 983,000, while there was a small increase for the News Of The World, of 60,000 readers. The News Of The World‘s readership now stands at 8.2 million.
The Sunday Mirror added more than 125,000 readers year on year in the period to September, giving it a total of 4.3 million.
| National Newspaper NRS Figures – Apr 07-Sep 07 | ||||
| Sunday Titles | Apr 06-Sep 06 | Apr 07-Sep 07 | Actual Change | % Change |
| Quality | ||||
| Independent On Sunday. | 824,000 | 844,000 | 20,000 | 2.4 |
| Observer | 1,445,000 | 1,299,000 | -146,000 | -10.1 |
| Sunday Telegraph | 1,982,000 | 1,681,000 | -301,000 | -15.2 |
| Sunday Times | 3,520,000 | 3,284,000 | -236,000 | -6.7 |
| Mid Market | ||||
| Mail On Sunday. | 6,144,000 | 5,810,000 | -334,000 | -5.4 |
| Sunday Express | 2,031,000 | 1,833,000 | -198,000 | -9.7 |
| Popular | ||||
| Daily Star Sunday. | 983,000 | 983,000 | 0 | 0.0 |
| News Of The World | 8,162,000 | 8,222,000 | 60,000 | 0.7 |
| People | 1,819,000 | 1,635,000 | -184,000 | -10.1 |
| Sunday Mirror | 4,141,000 | 4,268,000 | 127,000 | 3.1 |
| Total Sunday | 31,051,000 | 29,859,000 | -1,192,000 | -3.8 |
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