National Newspaper NRS – April 1998
Once again virtually all the national newspapers report losses in readership for the six months ending April 1998. In fact, it is only The Times which is currently showing any kind of growth at all: a 10.76% rise to a readership of just under two million. The only other papers to not show a fall in readership are The Observer (up 0.79%) and the Express On Sunday which is barely up by 0.32% to 2.8 million readers.
National Newspaper Nov ’97-Apr ’98 NRS YoY % Changes
| Title | Nov 96 – Apr 97 | Nov 97 – Apr 98 | Actual Change | % Change |
| Daily Mail | 5,323,000 | 4,925,000 | -398,000 | -7.48 |
| Daily Star | 2,120,000 | 1,807,000 | -313,000 | -14.76 |
| Daily Telegraph | 2,835,000 | 2,514,000 | -321,000 | -11.32 |
| Express | 2,534,000 | 2,521,000 | -13,000 | -0.51 |
| Express On Sunday | 2,783,000 | 2,792,000 | 9,000 | 0.32 |
| Financial Times | 567,000 | 566,000 | -1,000 | -0.18 |
| Guardian | 1,256,000 | 1,201,000 | -55,000 | -4.38 |
| Independent | 781,000 | 694,000 | -87,000 | -11.14 |
| Independent On Sunday | 919,000 | 844,000 | -75,000 | -8.16 |
| Mail On Sunday | 6,118,000 | 5,830,000 | -288,000 | -4.71 |
| Mirror | 6,133,000 | 6,121,000 | -12,000 | -0.2 |
| News Of The World | 11,785,000 | 11,596,000 | -189,000 | -1.6 |
| Observer | 1,141,000 | 1,150,000 | 9,000 | 0.79 |
| Sun | 10,122,000 | 9,833,000 | -289,000 | -2.86 |
| Sunday Mirror | 6,920,000 | 6,447,000 | -473,000 | -6.84 |
| Sunday People | 5,167,000 | 4,721,000 | -446,000 | -8.63 |
| Sunday Telegraph | 2,320,000 | 2,200,000 | -120,000 | -5.17 |
| Sunday Times | 3,799,000 | 3,696,000 | -103,000 | -2.71 |
| Times | 1,793,000 | 1,986,000 | 193,000 | 10.76 |
All other titles lost readers, the biggest casualties being The Daily Star (down 14.76% to 1.8 million readers), The Daily Telegraph (down 11.32% to 2.5 million) and the continually-troubled Independent (down 11.14% to just 694,000 readers). The Daily Star is currently rumoured to be planning a revamp in order to combat this decline in readership (see Daily Star Set To Move Upmarket).
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