NRS National Newspaper Round-Up – August 2002
NRS figures for the six months ending in August 2002 reveal a relatively positive period for national newspaper readership, which increased by 0.9% year on year to just over 66.4 million, up from 65.9 million in the same period the previous year.
The most activity was seen in the broadsheet market with the Sunday Times, which recently became the official sponsor of England rugby (see Sunday Times To Sponsor England Rugby), experiencing a notable 14.4% year on year increase in readership. GMG’s Guardian also performed well, with readership improving by 10.4% year on year to 1,313,000, an actual increase of 124,000.
At the other end of the scale, Independent News & Media’s Independent on Sunday suffered a 13.1% year on year decline, with readership dropping to 622,000. Earlier this month the publisher announced that advertising revenue fell by 6.8% during the first half of the year, while circulation revenues grew by 2.1% (see Ulster TV And Independent News & Media Post Half Year Results). The Financial Times also performed poorly in the six months to August 2002, with readership slipping by 6.9% year on year to 567,000, a decline of 42,000 in real terms.
In the popular market the gap between News International’s Sun and Trinity Mirror’s Daily Mirror continued to widen following the bitter price war between the two rival titles (see The Sun Re-Enters Price War With Cover Price Cut). The former saw readership increase by 1.3% year on year to 9.5 million, whilst the latter saw readership decline by 4.8% to 5.4 million.
Elsewhere, the News Of The World saw the most significant decline in real terms, with readership falling by 499,000 year on year.
| National Newspaper NRS Figures – August 2002 | ||||
| Title | Mar-Aug 01 | Mar-Aug 02 | Actual Change | % Change |
| Daily Express | 1,975,000 | 2,182,000 | 207,000 | 10.5 |
| Daily Mail | 5,634,000 | 5,933,000 | 299,000 | 5.3 |
| Daily Mirror | 5,704,000 | 5,429,000 | -275,000 | -4.8 |
| Daily Record | 1,526,000 | 1,607,000 | 81,000 | 5.3 |
| Daily Star | 1,649,000 | 1,736,000 | 87,000 | 5.3 |
| Daily Telegraph | 2,305,000 | 2,336,000 | 31,000 | 1.3 |
| Financial Times | 609,000 | 567,000 | -42,000 | -6.9 |
| Guardian | 1,189,000 | 1,313,000 | 124,000 | 10.4 |
| Independent | 655,000 | 569,000 | -86,000 | -13.1 |
| Independent On Sunday | 658,000 | 622,000 | -36,000 | -5.5 |
| Mail On Sunday | 5,710,000 | 5,881,000 | 171,000 | 3.0 |
| News Of The World | 10,202,000 | 9,703,000 | -499,000 | -4.9 |
| Observer | 1,164,000 | 1,264,000 | 100,000 | 8.6 |
| People | 3,028,000 | 3,034,000 | 6,000 | 0.2 |
| Sun | 9,434,000 | 9,553,000 | 119,000 | 1.3 |
| Sunday Express | 2,182,000 | 2,115,000 | -67,000 | -3.1 |
| Sunday Mirror | 5,610,000 | 5,409,000 | -201,000 | -3.6 |
| Sunday Telegraph | 2,010,000 | 2,053,000 | 43,000 | 2.1 |
| Sunday Times | 2,984,000 | 3,413,000 | 429,000 | 14.4 |
| Times | 1,642,000 | 1,712,000 | 70,000 | 4.3 |
| Total | 65,870,000 | 66,431,000 | 561,000 | 0.9 |
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