The quality market titles, both the dailies and Sundays, were the biggest losers in readership terms, year on year for the 12 months ending September 2011. In percentage terms the biggest faller was The Independent on Sunday with a 20.9% fall. In total number of readers lost The Sunday Times saw the largest fall at 330,000 (-10.8%).
Both the midmarket and popular markets remained pretty steady with the largest percentage faller being The People (-4.2%). Mirror Group stable mate, the Daily Mirror was the biggest gainer with a 4.3% increase. Obviously in the last quarter of this period in question the News of the World closed, last issue being 10th July. The increases in sale seen in the ABC data as a result for other Sunday titles, has not yet filtered through into the NRS data and nor should we expect it to just yet.
Published for the first time is a readership figure for ‘i’. It has less readers than its established sister title The Independent (they are closely matched in terms of total circulation) and has recorded a claimed average issue readership of 424,000. The ‘i’ was first included on the survey in November 2010 and was a 5 day measurement until June 2011. For the last 3 months (July-September) it has been measured on a Monday-Saturday basis.
Daily Titles
| Daily Titles | Oct 09 – Sep 10 | Oct 10 – Sep 11 | Actual Change | % Change |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Quality | ||||
| Daily Telegraph | 1,751,000 | 1,584,000 | -167,000 | -9.5 |
| Times | 1,613,000 | 1,435,000 | -178,000 | -11.0 |
| Guardian | 1,130,000 | 1,119,000 | -11,000 | -1.0 |
| Independent | 556,000 | 541,000 | -15,000 | -2.7 |
| i | n/a | 424,000 | n/a | n/a |
| Financial Times | 391,000 | 325,000 | -66,000 | -16.9 |
| Mid Market | ||||
| Daily Mail | 4,739,000 | 4,561,000 | -178,000 | -3.8 |
| Daily Express | 1,423,000 | 1,439,000 | 16,000 | 1.1 |
| Popular | ||||
| Sun | 7,700,000 | 7,652,000 | -48,000 | -0.6 |
| Daily Mirror | 3,117,000 | 3,251,000 | 134,000 | 4.3 |
| Daily Star | 1,551,000 | 1,506,000 | -45,000 | -2.9 |
| Daily Record | 909,000 | 893,000 | -16,000 | -1.8 |
Source: NRS
Sunday Titles
| Sunday Titles | Oct 09 – Sep 10 | Oct 10 – Sep 11 | Actual Change | % Change |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Quality | ||||
| Sunday Times | 3,050,000 | 2,720,000 | -330,000 | -10.8 |
| Sunday Telegraph | 1,518,000 | 1,420,000 | -98,000 | -6.5 |
| Observer | 1,078,000 | 1,135,000 | 57,000 | 5.3 |
| Independent On Sunday | 594,000 | 470,000 | -124,000 | -20.9 |
| Mid Market | ||||
| Mail On Sunday | 4,974,000 | 4,798,000 | -176,000 | -3.5 |
| Sunday Express | 1,518,000 | 1,530,000 | 12,000 | 0.8 |
| Popular | ||||
| Sunday Mirror | 3,816,000 | 3,698,000 | -118,000 | -3.1 |
| People | 1,291,000 | 1,237,000 | -54,000 | -4.2 |
| Daily Star Sunday | 941,000 | 935,000 | -6,000 | -0.6 |
Source: NRS
