Latest PAMCo figures are a mixed bag for newsbrands

The latest cross-platform audience figures for UK newsbrands show a growth in readership on the whole across the second quarter of the year – although print reach was down unanimously across the market.

Now in its second year PAMCo is also able to show year-on-year data on all publisher platforms – covering smartphones, tablets, desktop and print.

While the majority of titles have grown their monthly readership over the year, driven by a rapidly expanding mobile reach, a large number have recorded period-on-period declines.

Digital-only the Independent saw its total brand reach fall -11.4% PoP following a sizeable drop in phone and tablet readership, though the title was still up 12.3% over the year. In total, the newsbrand now has a monthly total brand reach of 19.5m.

The Telegraph was down -0.3% over the period and -2.0% year-on-year, though it maintains a healthy reach of 22.7m, while the Guardian‘s total brand reach dropped -1.1% PoP to just under 25m. However, the Guardian was up 3.5% over the year, with declines in print offset by a 12.6% YoY growth in mobile.

Meanwhile, the Times, the Daily Mail and the Sun were among those to grow their reach over both the year and the period, up 6.5% PoP, 6.3% PoP and 1.4% PoP, respectively.

The Times, which hides all of its digital content behind a paywall, now reaches close to 8.6m readers following a huge 27.6% boost to mobile readership over the period.

The Sun (29.7m) also saw good growth in mobile reach (+5.0% PoP), while the Daily Mail (31.1m) recorded its strongest growth on desktop, up 30.7% PoP.