NRS National Newspaper Round-Up: April – September 2008
Daily Newspaper Market
The NRS figures for April to September 2008 show that Britain’s daily national newspaper market was down 0.7% year on year in September.
However, in the daily Quality sector, the Guardian and the Times both added an impressive number of readers year on year, while the Daily Telegraph was also up.
The Sun recorded a year on year rise in its readership of almost 1.5% year on year.
Quality Daily Titles
The Guardian now has a total readership figure of 1.3 million following a year on year rise of 12.6%, while there was also impressive year on year growth for the Times, up 11.2% to 1.8 million readers.
At the start of September, the Times raised its cover price by 10p to 80p (see The Times Ups Its Cover Price).
The Daily Telegraph, up by around 2.5% year on year, now has a total of two million readers. The paper relaunched in full colour in September after a deal was reached with News International to use its printing division (see Daily Telegraph Goes Full Colour).
The Guardian and Daily Telegraph both raised their Saturday cover prices by 10p in early September, following the increase by the Times (see Guardian And Telegraph To Raise Cover Prices).
The price of the Saturday Daily Telegraph rose from £1.50 to £1.60, while the weekday edition also went up by 10p, from 80p to 90p. The Guardian‘s Saturday edition rose from £1.50 to £1.60, although the weekday paper remained at 80p.
The NRS figures also show that the Independent was down 2.6% to 752,000 readers.
Mid-Market Daily Titles
Both Mid-Market daily titles suffered year on year dips in their readership totals.
The Daily Mail, the second most read of any daily at 5.1 million readers, was down by around 3%, while the Daily Express was down by around 2% to just under 1.6 million.
The Mail increased its price by 5p to 50p towards the end of April (see Price Increase For Daily Mail).
Popular Daily Titles
The Sun had a pretty good period, enjoying a rise of 1.3% year on year, taking its total number of readers to almost eight million.
In August, News International cut the price of the Sun across the UK to 30p (see The Sun Slashes Its Cover Price Across The UK).
There was a relatively large decline in the Daily Star‘s number of readers, of 10.3% year on year. It now has 1.5 million readers according to the NRS data.
The Daily Mirror, down 6.6% year on year, now has 3.6 million readers, while the Daily Record‘s total readership dipped 3% to 1.1 million.
London Free Papers
The latest NRS figures for the London afternoon freesheets show that thelondonpaper now has just under 1.2 million readers, while the London Lite has over one million readers.
| National Newspaper NRS Figures – April 08- September 08 | ||||
| Daily Titles | Apr 07-Sep 07 | Apr 08-Sep 08 | Actual Change | % Change |
| Quality | ||||
| Daily Telegraph | 1,972,000 | 2,023,000 | 51,000 | 2.6 |
| Guardian | 1,130,000 | 1,272,000 | 142,000 | 12.6 |
| Independent | 772,000 | 752,000 | -20,000 | -2.6 |
| Times | 1,618,000 | 1,799,000 | 181,000 | 11.2 |
| Mid Market | ||||
| Daily Express | 1,607,000 | 1,573,000 | -34,000 | -2.1 |
| Daily Mail | 5,272,000 | 5,111,000 | -161,000 | -3.1 |
| Popular | ||||
| Daily Mirror | 3,813,000 | 3,563,000 | -250,000 | -6.6 |
| Daily Record | 1,141,000 | 1,107,000 | -34,000 | -3.0 |
| Daily Star | 1,626,000 | 1,459,000 | -167,000 | -10.3 |
| Sun | 7,857,000 | 7,962,000 | 105,000 | 1.3 |
| Total Daily | 26,808,000 | 26,621,000 | -187,000 | -0.7 |
Sunday Newspaper Market
The Sunday newspaper market was down by 5.3% overall in the six-month period to September 2008, a real term decline of over 1.57 million readers.
The Sunday Telegraph and the Observer were the only titles in the Sunday sector to increase their readership, both gaining 34,000 readers this period.
However, there were relatively significant declines for three titles in the Sunday sector – the Independent on Sunday suffered a 15.5% year on year decline, while the People and the Daily Star Sunday in the Popular category saw year on year decreases of 12.4% and 10.6% respectively.
Quality Sunday Titles
The Sunday Times still remains the most read title in the Quality sector in our analysis, despite losing more than 120,000 readers year on year. The title now has a readership figure of around 3.16 million.
The Sunday Telegraph was up 2% year on year, giving it a total figure of more than 1.7 million readers, while the Observer also increased its readership this period, up 2.6% to over 1.3 million readers.
However, it was a tough period for the Independent on Sunday. It saw its readership plummet by over 15% year on year, a real term decline of more than 130,000 readers, leaving its total at just 713,000 readers.
Mid-Market Sunday Titles
Both titles in the Mid-Market category witnessed a relatively similar downturn this period.
The Sunday Express experienced a 6.6% year on year decline, leaving its total readership figures at around 1.7 million.
Meanwhile, the Mail on Sunday was down 4.5% year on year but still managed to hold on to over 5.5 million readers.
Popular Sunday Titles
It was a tough period for the Popular sector in general, with all the titles seeing readership declines.
However, the News of the World still remains the most read paper in the overall Sunday market, well ahead of the other titles with more than 7.8 million readers, despite seeing a 4.3% year on year drop.
The Sunday Mirror has also managed to retain a relatively high readership figure with just under 4 million, despite experiencing a significant year on year fall of 8%.
Both the People and the Daily Star Sunday suffered large readership declines this period.
The People lost over 200,000 readers, taking its total to around 1.4 million, while the Daily Star Sunday saw a decline of over 100,000, leaving it with just under 880,000 total readers.
| National Newspaper NRS Figures – April 08- September 08 | ||||
| Sunday Titles | Apr 07-Sep 07 | Apr 08-Sep 08 | Actual Change | % Change |
| Quality | ||||
| Independent On Sunday. | 844,000 | 713,000 | -131,000 | -15.5 |
| Observer | 1,299,000 | 1,333,000 | 34,000 | 2.6 |
| Sunday Telegraph | 1,681,000 | 1,715,000 | 34,000 | 2.0 |
| Sunday Times | 3,284,000 | 3,161,000 | -123,000 | -3.7 |
| Mid Market | ||||
| Mail On Sunday. | 5,810,000 | 5,546,000 | -264,000 | -4.5 |
| Sunday Express | 1,833,000 | 1,712,000 | -121,000 | -6.6 |
| Popular | ||||
| Daily Star Sunday. | 983,000 | 879,000 | -104,000 | -10.6 |
| News Of The World | 8,222,000 | 7,870,000 | -352,000 | -4.3 |
| People | 1,635,000 | 1,432,000 | -203,000 | -12.4 |
| Sunday Mirror | 4,268,000 | 3,927,000 | -341,000 | -8.0 |
| Total Sunday | 29,859,000 | 28,288,000 | -1,571,000 | -5.3 |
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