NRS National Newspaper Round-Up: Apr 2010 – Mar 2011

The latest NRS figures for April 2010 to March 2011 reflects another poor 12 months for the national newspaper market – with just one title seeing its readership increase over the year.

The Guardian enjoyed a boost in readers – up 30,000 during the period.

However, all other titles in our analysis, both Daily and Sunday, posted losses – with some suffering a significant decline in readership (including The Times, The Sunday Times and the Mail on Sunday).

Daily Titles

• Once again, the quality sector recorded the biggest percentage losses – with The Times down by almost 15% as it increasingly looks to drive readers to its paid-for digital offering
• The Independent and the Financial Times posted substantial year on year percentage drops too, down by 11.5% and 12.2% respectively
• The Daily Telegraph saw its readership decline 8% over the period – an actual loss of 147,000 readers – but remains the most-read quality title (1.7 million readers)
• The Guardian bucked the overall trend in the print market, gaining 30,000 readers during the year (up 2.7%), which takes its total to over 1.5 million
• Both mid-market titles posted a dip in readership – the Daily Mail down 2.2% and the Daily Express down 2.7%
• The Sun fared better than most daily titles, recording just a slight 0.4% dip and remains the most popular daily title with a total readership of more than 7.7 million
• The Daily Mirror suffered the biggest actual loss in the tabloid sector, down 218,000 readers (6.4%)

Sunday Titles

• All of the Sunday titles suffered year on year losses, though once again the broadsheet papers posted the highest percentage drops
• The Sunday Times lost a significant 347,000 readers during the period, down 10.8%, keeping its total well below the 3 million mark
• The Sunday Telegraph wasn’t far behind, down 255,000 readers (15.2%) to 1.4 million
• The Observer didn’t manage to replicate the Guardian‘s success either – recording a 10.8% year on year decline
• The Independent on Sunday saw its readership fall from 600,000 to 518,000 during the period
• Both mid-market titles recorded a drop in readers, though the Mail on Sunday claimed the biggest actual loss in the Sunday market, down 369,000 readers
• The News of the World posted the highest actual drop in the red-top market, down 187,000 readers, but easily remains the most popular Sunday title with 7.5 million readers
• The Sunday Mirror also saw a fairly substantial loss, down 184,000 readers to 3.6 million