NRS National Newspaper Round-Up: March 2008
Daily Newspaper Market
Britain’s national daily newspapers reported an overall drop in readership in March, of 3% year on year.
Tthe Daily Record showed a very impressive upturn in readers year on year, of around 9%, while the Daily Mail was also up.
There were some relatively large declines though, with the Independent down by around 13.5% year on year and the Daily Star falling by around 21.5%.
Quality Daily Titles
In the Quality daily sector, the Times was relatively static year on year, at 1.7 million readers.
The Independent reported a downturn in readership of around 13.5% year on year, to leave its total number of readers at just under 695,000.
The Daily Telegraph and the Guardian were also down year on year, by around 3% and 4% respectively.
The Daily Telegraph now has a total readership of just under 2.1 million, while the Guardian‘s is around 1.2 million.
Mid-Market Daily Titles
In the Mid-Market, the Daily Express lost around 130,000 readers year on year, seeing its total fall to just over 1.6 million.
It was better news for the Daily Mail, however, with a rise of around 2% giving it a total of 5.3 million readers.
Popular Daily Titles
There was a very impressive increase in readers for the Daily Record, up by around 9% year on year, to more than 1.2 million.
The Daily Star suffered a big blow though, shedding around 21.5% of its readership, to leave its total at just under 1.4 million.
The was also down. It now has around 3.7 million readers after a decline of 6% year on year.
Meanwhile, although the Sun shed almost 70,000 readers, it remains the most read daily, with a total of around 7.9 million.
London Free Papers
London evening freesheets thelondonpaper and the London Lite are quite evenly matched according to the latest NRS figures, with thelondonpaper just edging ahead.
thelondonpaper‘s readership stands at 932,000, while the London Lite‘s is 931,000.
| National Newspaper NRS Figures – Oct 07- Mar 08 | ||||
| Daily Titles | Oct 06-Mar 07 | Oct 07-Mar 08 | Actual Change | % Change |
| Quality | ||||
| Daily Telegraph | 2,136,000 | 2,073,000 | -63,000 | -2.9 |
| Guardian | 1,256,000 | 1,208,000 | -48,000 | -3.8 |
| Independent | 802,000 | 693,000 | -109,000 | -13.6 |
| Times | 1,726,000 | 1,729,000 | 3,000 | 0.2 |
| Mid Market | ||||
| Daily Express | 1,767,000 | 1,636,000 | -131,000 | -7.4 |
| Daily Mail | 5,205,000 | 5,313,000 | 108,000 | 2.1 |
| Popular | ||||
| Daily Mirror | 3,923,000 | 3,682,000 | -241,000 | -6.1 |
| Daily Record | 1,137,000 | 1,238,000 | 101,000 | 8.9 |
| Daily Star | 1,754,000 | 1,374,000 | -380,000 | -21.7 |
| Sun | 8,004,000 | 7,936,000 | -68,000 | -0.8 |
| Total Daily | 27,710,000 | 26,882,000 | -828,000 | -3.0 |
Sunday Newspaper Market
The Sunday newspaper market showed a fall of almost 6.5% overall in the six-month period to March.
Total readership of national Sunday titles now stands at almost 29.1 million, down from nearly 31.1 million in March 2007.
The period saw pretty large percentage declines for the Daily Star Sunday, the Sunday Times and the Sunday Express.
Quality Sunday Titles
The Sunday Times suffered a big drop, of 395,000 readers year on year, to leave it with a total of around 3.1 million, while the Independent On Sunday fell by almost 6.5%, its total dropping to around 740,000.
Shedding around 45,000 readers year on year was the Observer, which now has a total of 1.4 million.
Compared with the other titles in the Popular Sunday sector, the Daily Telegraph fared quite well. Its readership dipped by around 0.5% year on year, leaving its total at 1.8 million.
Mid-Market Sunday Titles
The Mail On Sunday was down by just under 0.5%,year on year, although this translated into a real term fall of 20,000 readers. It has a total of 5.8 million readers, meaning it’s the second most read Sunday national newspaper in our report, behind the News Of The World.
There was a year on year fall of 10.5% for the Sunday Express, leaving it with around 1.8 million readers.
Popular Sunday Titles
In the Popular Sundays, the Daily Star Sunday and the News of The World saw their totals fall by around 12.5% and 10% respectively.
This leaves the Daily Star Sunday with almost 865,000 readers, while the News of The World has 7.7 million.
There were smaller declines for the People and the Sunday Mirror.
The People now has almost 1.7 million readers, following a year on year dip of around 2.5%.
The Sunday Mirror, was down by around 5% year on year, or 205,000 readers, leaving it with four million in total.
| National Newspaper NRS Figures – Oct 07- Mar 08 | ||||
| Sunday Titles | Oct 06-Mar 07 | Oct 07-Mar 08 | Actual Change | % Change |
| Quality | ||||
| Independent On Sunday | 792,000 | 742,000 | -50,000 | -6.3 |
| Observer | 1,445,000 | 1,400,000 | -45,000 | -3.1 |
| Sunday Telegraph | 1,829,000 | 1,818,000 | -11,000 | -0.6 |
| Sunday Times | 3,566,000 | 3,170,000 | -396,000 | -11.1 |
| Mid Market | ||||
| Mail On Sunday | 5,827,000 | 5,807,000 | -20,000 | -0.3 |
| Sunday Express | 2,048,000 | 1,829,000 | -219,000 | -10.7 |
| Popular | ||||
| Daily Star Sunday | 984,000 | 863,000 | -121,000 | -12.3 |
| News Of The World | 8,593,000 | 7,744,000 | -849,000 | -9.9 |
| People | 1,693,000 | 1,649,000 | -44,000 | -2.6 |
| Sunday Mirror | 4,279,000 | 4,074,000 | -205,000 | -4.8 |
| Total Sunday | 31,056,000 | 29,096,000 | -1,960,000 | -6.3 |
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