NRS National Newspaper Round-Up: November 2006
Daily Newspaper Market
Britain’s national newspapers suffered a slump in readership year on year for the six-month period to November 2006, with Daily titles dropping almost 5% overall and the Sunday market feeling a 3.3% total fall.
The Daily Telegraph and the Independent were the only Daily titles to boost their readership, whilst all other papers in the market saw declines in reader numbers.
Popular Daily brands were the hardest hit in real terms, with the Sun and the Daily Mirror witnessing the most dramatic year on year slide in their readership totals, at around 490,000 and 320,000 respectively.
The Daily Express and the Times also lost significant numbers of readers, with the Express recording the largest percentage loss in the Daily market at more than 11.5%.
Quality Daily Titles
The Times was the most severely affected title in the Quality sector, with a fall in readership of 8.5% year on year for the six months to November.
The title shed more than 150,000 readers from its total for the period, to leave it with a base of over 1.6 million. The Guardian also dropped readers in the same period, however, the Berliner-style title shed just 3,000 readers to leave it with a total of around 1.2 million.
The Daily Telegraph and the Independent increased their readerships, with the Telegraph pushing its final figure up 137,000 or 6.5% and the Indy rising by 17,000 or 2.3%. The titles now command readerships of more than 2.2 million and around 750,000 respectively.
Mid Market Daily Titles
The Daily Express and the Daily Mail‘s readerships both fell year on year, with the Express suffering a worse fate than its rival did.
The Mail shed just under 150,000 readers for the period (almost 3%) whilst the Express dropped more than 220,000. The Mid-Market newspapers’ readerships now rest at almost 5.4 million and almost 1.7 million respectively.
Popular Daily Titles
All titles in the Popular sector saw their reader numbers go down year on year, with market-leader the Sun suffering the greatest loss in real terms.
The title, which now boasts a readership of around 7.6 million, lost around 490,000 readers for the period, but remains by far the most read national title in Britain.
The Daily Mirror also suffered a similar decline, down 321,000 or almost 8% year on year. Its total readership now stands at almost 3.8 million.
The Daily Star and the Daily Record also shed readers, losing 124,000 and 24,000 respectively. The Star now manages to attract around 1.6 million readers whilst the Record rests at around 1.2 million.
| National Newspaper NRS Figures – November 2006 | ||||
| Daily Titles | Jun 05-Nov 05 | Jun 06-Nov 06 | Actual Change | % Change |
| Quality | ||||
| Daily Telegraph | 2,104,000 | 2,241,000 | 137,000 | 6.5 |
| Guardian | 1,230,000 | 1,227,000 | -3,000 | -0.2 |
| Independent | 732,000 | 749,000 | 17,000 | 2.3 |
| Times | 1,807,000 | 1,653,000 | -154,000 | -8.5 |
| Mid Market | ||||
| Daily Express | 1,921,000 | 1,698,000 | -223,000 | -11.6 |
| Daily Mail | 5,527,000 | 5,380,000 | -147,000 | -2.7 |
| Popular | ||||
| Daily Mirror | 4,104,000 | 3,783,000 | -321,000 | -7.8 |
| Daily Record | 1,218,000 | 1,194,000 | -24,000 | -2.0 |
| Daily Star | 1,744,000 | 1,620,000 | -124,000 | -7.1 |
| Sun | 8,098,000 | 7,606,000 | -492,000 | -6.1 |
| Total Daily | 28,485,000 | 27,151,000 | -1,334,000 | -4.7 |
Sunday Newspaper Market
As with the Dailies, the Sunday newspaper market also suffered a downturn in readership for November, falling 3.3% year on year.
However, the month saw all of the Quality Sunday titles record readership increases, with theObserver experiencing the largest percentage increase of any Sunday title, up almost 12% year on year. In both the Popular and Mid-Market sectors, the Daily Star Sunday was the only title to record an increase in readership.
Quality Sunday Titles
All of the Quality Sunday titles recorded increases year on year for the six months to November, with the Observer showing the largest increase percentage wise, up nearly 12%, to give it a readership of over 1.4 million.
In actual terms, the Sunday Times recorded the largest increase in the sector, up 171,000 year on year, to take its total readership figure to more than 3.6 million.
The Independent On Sunday saw its reader numbers grow by 84,000 year on year, a percentage boost of just over 11%, whilst the Sunday Telegraph saw the smallest rise, up almost 1% year on year, giving it a total readership figure hovering just below the two million mark.
Mid Market Sunday Titles
In the Mid-Market, the Mail On Sunday experienced a small percentage decrease in readers, down 1% year on year to leave it with a total figure of around 6.1 million, although it remained the most read paper in the sector.
Meanwhile the Sunday Express dropped nearly 115,000 readers year on year, leaving it with a readership figure of just over two million.
Popular Sunday Titles
The Daily Star Sunday was the only title to record an increase in readership in the Popular sector, although it added just 12,000 readers year on year.
The largest decline in real terms was suffered by the News Of The World, which lost 520,000. It did, however, remain the most read of any Sunday title, with a total figure of more than 8.1 million readers.
The Sunday Mirror also lost more than 500,000 readers year on year, to leave it with a readership figure of around four million, whilst the People was hardest hit percentage wise, dropping 15.5% year on year. Its total readership now rests at over 1.6 million.
| National Newspaper NRS Figures – November 2006 | ||||
| Sunday Titles | Jun 05-Nov 05 | Jun 06-Nov 06 | Actual Change | % Change |
| Quality | ||||
| Independent On Sunday | 758,000 | 842,000 | 84,000 | 11.1 |
| Observer | 1,306,000 | 1,462,000 | 156,000 | 11.9 |
| Sunday Telegraph | 1,973,000 | 1,990,000 | 17,000 | 0.9 |
| Sunday Times | 3,488,000 | 3,659,000 | 171,000 | 4.9 |
| Mid Market | ||||
| Mail On Sunday | 6,211,000 | 6,150,000 | -61,000 | -1.0 |
| Sunday Express | 2,157,000 | 2,044,000 | -113,000 | -5.2 |
| Popular | ||||
| Daily Star Sunday | 1,004,000 | 1,016,000 | 12,000 | 1.2 |
| News Of The World | 8,701,000 | 8,181,000 | -520,000 | -6.0 |
| People | 1,979,000 | 1,672,000 | -307,000 | -15.5 |
| Sunday Mirror | 4,539,000 | 4,035,000 | -504,000 | -11.1 |
| Total Sunday | 32,116,000 | 31,051,000 | -1,065,000 | -3.3 |
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