NRS National Newspaper Round-Up: April 2011 – March 2012

The quality titles, both the dailies and Sundays, were the biggest losers in readership terms in the latest NRS release for April 2011 to March 2012 (the first release of 2012 data).

The Daily Telegraph lost 225,000 readers (down -13.3% YoY), though it still remains the most read title in the quality sector.

The Times saw its readership drop 145,000 readers (down -9.6% YoY) while The Sunday Times was down -10.6% (-304,000 readers). The Guardian recorded a -8.3% fall (-96,000 readers) and the Independent a -5.2% drop (-29,000 readers). The Independent on Sunday, meanwhile, saw a smaller -1.7% YoY dip. i‘s readership currently stands at 561,000.

The FT saw its readership fall by -18.0% YoY during the period.

Despite its online success, the print version of the Daily Mail lost 349,000 readers (down -7.3%), however the Mail on Sunday enjoyed a small 0.9% rise. Both Express titles posted declines – the Daily Express down -10.7% and the Sunday Express down -1.4% YoY.

Three of the four popular dailies recorded YoY declines. The Sun posted the biggest actual loss, down -391,000 readers, while the Daily Star saw the highest percentage drop (-9.2%). The Daily Mirror had more success though, despite the struggles at Trinity Mirror, up 1.0% over the period.

The Sunday red-tops also did well with all three titles enjoying YoY increases. The Sunday Mirror added 370,000 readers, while the People and the Daily Star Sunday added over 200,000 readers each. This NRS release reflects the period after the demise of the News of the World but does not yet include the data since the launch of The Sun on Sunday on 26 February, which will be in the next release.

Mike Ironside, chief executive of NRS, said: “In the newspaper arena the Sunday popular titles still show significant growth since the closing of the News of the World whilst there are still declines across the daily newspaper titles in line with their circulation performances.”

Daily Titles

Sunday Titles