The latest round of NRS figures, for the periods ending May 1995 show Sky’s readership figure continuing to fall. Since the introduction of a new prompt card differentiating Sky from the Sky TV Guide listings title, Sky has lost well over 1 million readers. Its latest figure, of 1,461,000 is down 51.4% year on year and removes Sky from the top ten general interest consumer titles. Sky TV Guide, with a figure of 5,044,000 breaks the five million readers mark for the first time, second only to Readers Digest, which recorded a figure of 5,842,000.
Loaded, the male interest title, has recorded a 12-month figure of 424,000; its figures have been steadily rising from 377,000 last month and 343,000 the previous month. Among the women’s interest titles, Company and Marie Claire fared best, with increases of over 35% year on year to 733,000 and 1,401,000 respectively. OK also fared well year on year, up 22% to 395,000. Sainsbury’s Magazine also fared well compared to last year’s figure, up 19.5% or an extra 269,000 readers. Those women’s titles which did not fare so well were Living, which lost 128,000 readers year on year, down 21.6%. Take a Break remains the market leader, with its latest Average Issue Readership figure at 3,763,000. Bella and Womans Own also both maintained readership figures of over 3 million.
Among the national newspapers the quality papers fared by far the best, with the Times recording a 20.8% increase year on year to 1,594,000; the Telegraph recorded an increase of 8.1% year on year to 2,694,000, and the Guardian rose by 94,000 readers or 7.5% to 1,355,000. The Independent on Sunday’s improvements in circulation are not yet reflected in its readership figure; this was down by 17% to 1,001,000. The Express titles’ falling circulation is however reflected, with both the daily and Sunday papers recording year on year decreases of over 12%.
