NRS National Newspaper Round-Up
The Financial Times was one of the high-flying titles during the six months to November, adding 16% to its readership year on year and notching up a total of 450,000 according to the latest NRS figures.
The increase shows the paper performing well despite reports earlier this month that at least 20 journalists will leave the Financial Times following a voluntary redundancy programme designed to cut costs and boost performance at the troubled newspaper. The redundancies follow a wide-ranging cost-cutting programme, designed to save around £7 million, which saw the paper’s respected Creative Business supplement being closed last year. The newspaper blamed the closure on a failure by the 16-page supplement to bring in adequate advertising revenue.
Also performing well, at the opposite end of the newspaper spectrum, was the Daily Star. The newspaper added 23.8% year on year to climb above the 2 million mark. The newspaper’s Sunday sister title also put in a strong performance, increasing readership by 14.2% to just over the 1.2 million in the same period.
The Times‘ broadsheet edition saw a dip in its readership, losing 0.4% to a total of just under 1.7 million in September, as October saw the closure of the title’s large-format edition.
The Times‘ principal compact rival the Independent, however, saw a healthy 14.8% rise in readership year on year, ending November with a total of 583,000. The Guardian, on the other hand, suffered a 5.1% downturn in its readership, losing almost 60,000 in real terms but managing to keep its readership at just over 1 million.
The tabloid market saw a virtually static performance, with News International’s Sun increasing its readership by just 0.4%, compared with a 0.8% decrease by arch rival Trinity Mirror’s Daily Mirror. The newspapers now command a readership of just over 8.7 million and nearly 4.5 million respectively.
Things were mixed amongst the Sunday titles, with Richard Desmond’s Sunday Express losing 2.7% of its readership and faring badly against its closest rival, the Mail on Sunday, which managed an increase of 7.8% in the same period.
The Mail on Sunday remained the best read mid-market Sunday title in November, with a readership of just over 6.5 million. However, News International’s News Of the World continued to outstrip all of its weekend rivals in terms of readership, despite a 0.1% decrease in the six months to November, at just under 9.5 million.
| National Newspaper NRS Figures – November 2004 | ||||
| Title | Jun 04-Nov 04 | Jun 04-Nov 04 | Actual Change | % Change |
| Daily Express | 2,040,000 | 2,101,000 | 61,000 | 3.0 |
| Daily Mail | 5,776,000 | 5,854,000 | 78,000 | 1.4 |
| Daily Mirror | 4,529,000 | 4,492,000 | -37,000 | -0.8 |
| Daily Record | 1,419,000 | 1,200,000 | -219,000 | -15.4 |
| Daily Star | 1,617,000 | 2,002,000 | 385,000 | 23.8 |
| Daily Star Sunday | 1,110,000 | 1,268,000 | 158,000 | 14.2 |
| Daily Telegraph | 2,111,000 | 2,132,000 | 21,000 | 1.0 |
| Financial Times | 388,000 | 450,000 | 62,000 | 16.0 |
| Guardian | 1,147,000 | 1,088,000 | -59,000 | -5.1 |
| Independent | 508,000 | 583,000 | 75,000 | 14.8 |
| Independent On Sunday | 676,000 | 674,000 | -2,000 | -0.3 |
| Mail On Sunday | 6,042,000 | 6,511,000 | 469,000 | 7.8 |
| News Of The World | 9,445,000 | 9,436,000 | -9,000 | -0.1 |
| Observer | 1,228,000 | 1,197,000 | -31,000 | –2.5 |
| People | 2,403,000 | 2,062,000 | -341,000 | -14.2 |
| Sun | 8,739,000 | 8,772,000 | 33,000 | 0.4 |
| Sunday Express | 2,314,000 | 2,251,000 | -63,000 | -2.7 |
| Sunday Mirror | 4,883,000 | 4,763,000 | -120,000 | -2.5 |
| Sunday Telegraph | 1,974,000 | 2,017,000 | 43,000 | 2.2 |
| Sunday Times | 3,291,000 | 3,171,000 | -120,000 | -3.6 |
| Times | 1,678,000 | 1,671,000 | -7,000 | -0.4 |
| Total | 63,318,000 | 63,695,000 | 377,000 | 0.6 |
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