NotW fallout: One million weekly readers may be lost

Analysis of the NRS shows that there are 1.1 million average issue readers of the News of the World (NotW) (about 15%) who do not read any other national newspaper – so there is a likelihood that many of these could be lost to the national press altogether.

Around 35 million people read a national newspaper every week – so that’s up to 3% of all readers, who might look elsewhere – or may just decide that nothing matches that NotW Sunday morning feeling. It will provide interesting analysis of the public’s cultural need to read a newspaper on a Sunday to see how many can be converted by other titles.

Of course they might in time be enticed by a Sunday Sun if a seven-day version of the paper was to be launched. News International could feel quite confident in converting at least the 52% who read both the Sun and the NotW (3.9 million readers).

However, long before that might become a consideration, there will be a huge battle to pick up new readers next Sunday. The largest Sunday cross-over readership for NotW was with The Sunday Mirror (1.3 million reading both), but 63% of NotW readers did not read any other national Sunday.

So there is the primary battleground this weekend. 4.7 million readers up for grabs!