National Newspaper NRS Round-Up – October 2001
The latest figures from the NRS show that readership of national newspapers during October fell 1% overall compared with the previous year, demonstrating that any increased demand for news caused by 11 September was shortlived. The split between titles which saw a year on year increase and those that saw a year on year decrease in readership was more or less 50/50.
The largest movement, both up and down, was seen in the tabloid press. One year on from being bought up by Richard Desmond, the Daily Star saw an impressive year on year increase of 17.8%, bringing its readership up by a quarter of a million to 1.6m. At the opposite end of the scale, the Sunday People fell 14.6% year on year, its readership falling just under 300,000 to 3m.
Among the broadsheets, the Times managed an 8.5% increase, taking it beyond the 1.6m mark. Meanwhile, the Financial Times slipped just under 8% during October, to 585,000. The Daily Mail continues to dominate in the middle market, but increased its lead by just 3.5% during the month, while rival the Daily Express saw a year on year decrease in readership of 209,000, or 9.5%.
| National Newspaper NRS Figures – October 2001 | ||||
| Title | May 00 – Oct 00 | May 01 – Oct 01 | Actual Change | % Change |
| Daily Express | 2,209,000 | 2,000,000 | -209,000 | -9.5 |
| Daily Mail | 5,472,000 | 5,661,000 | 189,000 | 3.5 |
| Daily Record | 1,619,000 | 1,553,000 | -66,000 | -4.1 |
| Daily Star | 1,403,000 | 1,653,000 | 250,000 | 17.8 |
| Daily Telegraph | 2,276,000 | 2,225,000 | -51,000 | -2.2 |
| Financial Times | 641,000 | 585,000 | -56,000 | -8.7 |
| Guardian | 1,076,000 | 1,230,000 | 154,000 | 14.3 |
| Independent | 544,000 | 548,000 | 4,000 | 0.7 |
| Independent On Sunday | 629,000 | 623,000 | -6,000 | -1.0 |
| Mail On Sunday | 5,909,000 | 5,751,000 | -158,000 | -2.7 |
| Mirror | 5,774,000 | 5,821,000 | 47,000 | 0.8 |
| News Of The World | 10,098,000 | 10,136,000 | 38,000 | 0.4 |
| Observer | 1,068,000 | 1,152,000 | 84,000 | 7.9 |
| Sun | 9,683,000 | 9,321,000 | -362,000 | -3.7 |
| Sunday Express | 2,130,000 | 2,215,000 | 85,000 | 4.0 |
| Sunday Mirror | 5,705,000 | 5,407,000 | -298,000 | -5.2 |
| Sunday People | 3,590,000 | 3,065,000 | -525,000 | -14.6 |
| Sunday Telegraph | 1,995,000 | 2,109,000 | 114,000 | 5.7 |
| Sunday Times | 3,084,000 | 3,067,000 | -17,000 | -0.6 |
| Times | 1,485,000 | 1,611,000 | 126,000 | 8.5 |
| Total | 66,390,000 | 65,733,000 | -657,000 | -1.0 |
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