NRS: Latest National Newspaper Readerships
Daily Newspaper Market
The latest NRS figures, for July 2008 to June 2009, show fairly impressive readership increases for three of the Quality daily titles.
However, all of the titles in the Popular sector saw their readership totals decline year on year.
The Daily Mail also suffered a loss of more than half a million readers.
Quality Daily Titles
The Financial Times enjoyed a healthy rise of more than 14% year on year, taking it total to 430,000 readers.
The Times and the Guardian also increased their readerships over the year, by 4% and 3.4% respectively.
The Guardian now has over 1.2 million readers, while The Times has an impressive 1.8 million readers in total.
The Times is now close on the heels of the Daily Telegraph after it suffered a substantial 10.5% loss, taking its total down to 1.84 million
The Independent also failed to increase its readership, slipping down to just fewer than 680,000 readers after a 3.3% year on year decline.
Mid-Market Daily Titles
The Daily Express managed to increase its total to 1.6 million readers following a 1.6% year on year rise.
However, its fellow Mid-Market title, The Daily Mail, suffered a fairly hefty 9.4% year on year drop to 4.8 million readers.
Popular Daily Titles
None of the Popular daily titles in our analysis managed to record an increase in readers, although the Daily Star only dipped by 0.9% to 1.47 million.
The Daily Record, on the other hand, was down by almost 10% to one million readers, the lowest in its sector.
The Daily Mirror and The Sun also lost readers, dropping by 3.2% and 2.1% respectively.
However, both redtop titles still managed to retain healthy readerships – the Mirror has more than 3.5 million readers, while The Sun has over 7.8 million.
| Daily Titles | Jul 07 – Jun 08 | Jul 08 – Jun 09 | Actual Change | % Change |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Quality | ||||
| Daily Telegraph | 2,060,000 | 1,843,000 | -217,000 | -10.5 |
| Financial Times | 377,000 | 430,000 | 53,000 | 14.1 |
| Guardian | 1,165,000 | 1,205,000 | 40,000 | 3.4 |
| Independent | 702,000 | 679,000 | -23,000 | -3.3 |
| Times | 1,731,000 | 1,801,000 | 70,000 | 4.0 |
| Mid Market | ||||
| Daily Express | 1,598,000 | 1,624,000 | 26,000 | 1.6 |
| Daily Mail | 5,347,000 | 4,846,000 | -501,000 | -9.4 |
| Popular | ||||
| Daily Mirror | 3,685,000 | 3,566,000 | -119,000 | -3.2 |
| Daily Record | 1,212,000 | 1,092,000 | -120,000 | -9.9 |
| Daily Star | 1,484,000 | 1,471,000 | -13,000 | -0.9 |
| Sun | 8,031,000 | 7,860,000 | -171,000 | -2.1 |
Sunday Newspaper Market
Three Sunday national newspapers bucked the overall trend of declining readership in the twelve months to June 2009.
In the Quality sector, the Observer and Sunday Times both increased their overall figures, while in the Popular sector the Daily Star Sunday remained static.
Quality Sunday Titles
The Observer recorded a 4.2% year on year increase in readers, taking its total figure to just under 1.4 million, while the Sunday Times was up 1.1% to around 3.2 million.
There was a large year on year fall for the Independent on Sunday, shedding almost 15% of its readership to leave it at around 645,000.
The Sunday Telegraph was also down, by 4.1% to under 1.7 million readers.
Mid-Market Sunday Titles
Both of the Mid-Market titles were down, with the Mail on Sunday‘s readership falling by around 7% to less than 5.5 million readers.
The Sunday Express saw its total readership decline 6.4% year on year to under 1.7 million.
Popular Sunday Titles
The Daily Star Sunday was the best performer in the Popular sector, remaining static at 888,000 readers.
The News of the World – easily the most read Sunday title – was down slightly year on year, by 0.7%, to under 7.9 million readers.
There was a pretty big drop of 11.4% for the People, leaving its total readership at 1.4 million, while the Sunday Mirror shed 5.2% of its total to leave it with around 3.9 million readers.
| Sunday Titles | Jul 07 – Jun 08 | Jul 08 – Jun 09 | Actual Change | % Change |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Quality | ||||
| Independent On Sunday. | 757,000 | 646,000 | -111,000 | -14.7 |
| Observer | 1,318,000 | 1,374,000 | 56,000 | 4.2 |
| Sunday Telegraph | 1,744,000 | 1,672,000 | -72,000 | -4.1 |
| Sunday Times | 3,159,000 | 3,194,000 | 35,000 | 1.1 |
| Mid Market | ||||
| Mail On Sunday. | 5,884,000 | 5,466,000 | -418,000 | -7.1 |
| Sunday Express | 1,790,000 | 1,676,000 | -114,000 | -6.4 |
| Popular | ||||
| Daily Star Sunday. | 888,000 | 888,000 | 0 | 0.0 |
| News Of The World | 7,903,000 | 7,850,000 | -53,000 | -0.7 |
| People | 1,616,000 | 1,431,000 | -185,000 | -11.4 |
| Sunday Mirror | 4,108,000 | 3,893,000 | -215,000 | -5.2 |