NRS PADD: April 2012 – March 2013

The National Readership Survey has today released its latest figures combining both print and online for the newspaper industry for the period April 2012 to March 2013.

Differing to earlier versions, the latest report now includes comparable period on period (PoP) data with the results showing that all but three newsbrands suffered declines on the January 12 – Dec 12 period.

Only the Daily Express, Financial Times and the Independent platforms saw any increase in readership across print and online, up 14.8%. 13.6% and 12.8%, respectively.

However, the results still show the continuing dominance of the Daily Mail platforms and the considerable impact of online to a newsbrand’s readership figures more generally.

With net print and online readership above above 18.8 million each month (yet down -5.9% period on period), the Daily Mail’s closest rival, the Sun, is 1.8 million readers behind with 17 million people reading content across its print and digital platforms (down -2.5% PoP).

The Sun this month announced that it would be placing its online content behind a paywall in August, making it interesting for the industry to monitor how this will impact its online readership.

DMGT’s Lord Rothermere indicated earlier this year that the MailOnline is not, at this stage, likely to go behind a paywall, although he did not rule out experimenting with other business models for more ‘premium’ content.

The Guardian and guardian.co.uk remain the most read quality newspaper combination in Britain, with 12.5 million monthly readers (a -2.1% drop on the previous period).

Online still accounts for around two-thirds of the Guardian’s readership, which is growing overall and the newsbrand last week announced a new streamlined online platform is being launched as a result of the newsbrand’s growing digital appeal.

The Guardian also confirmed the majority of readers come from international markets as it expands its US and Australian operations.

In comparison, the Telegraph’s platforms – with a metered paywall for online – reached 10.7 million net readers combined (4.2 million print, almost 7.9 million online).

In print, there is not much between the two rivals, but the Guardian.co.uk secured the newsbrand more than 2.5 million more monthly online readers than the Telegraph.co.uk.

Meanwhile, the Independent titles saw a 12.8% growth over print and digital on the last period, securing 7.1 million readers each month while the Times and Sunday Times – with a website behind a paywall – secured 5.4 million, but with 5 million in print, making it the best read print title in the quality market.

In the popular market, the Sun led with 17 million print and online readers each month (-2.5% PoP), followed by the Daily Mirror with 10.7 million monthly readers (down -3.3% PoP), while the Daily Star secured 4 million (-8.8% PoP).

Overall the figures show that online, in most cases, adds considerable numbers to a newsbrand’s readership figures; a growth trend evidenced in previous versions of NRS PADD and in ABC’s digital figures, which show general circulations, rather than actual readership.

——————————————————————————————————

————————————————————————————————————————————————————————–

——————————————————————————————————————-