NRS PADD Jul 13 – Jun 14: Newsbrands see readership declines

The National Readership Survey (NRS) has today released its latest figures combining both print and online readership for newsbrands between July 2013 and June 2014.

The figures reveal a poor performance for overall readership growth across the entire market, with every newsbrand recording negative growth from the last reported period.

The Times was hardest hit with a -7% drop followed by the Guardian, down -6.4%.

The best performing newsbrand, in terms of period-on-period (PoP) growth, was The Independent/i, down only -1.3%.

In terms of total readership, however, most newsbrands maintained strong figures. The Daily Mail and its online platform, MailOnline, continued to lead the pack with a net print and website total of almost 17.8 million readers (a -5.2% drop, PoP) – the highest readership of any UK newsbrand.

The newsbrand’s print and digital audience remains fairly evenly split, recording an average of 10.9 million print readers and 9.6 million online visitors for the period.

It remains different story for rival the Sun, however, with the majority of the title’s audience lying in print.

While the newsbrand has a combined readership of just over 14 million (-3% PoP), just 1.2 million come from its paywalled website.

This is in sharp contrast to the Guardian which had a combined print and online readership of 11.8 million; but with the majority – almost 9.6 million – reading digitally.

Currently, the Guardian is almost neck and neck with The Daily Telegraph (with a metered online paywall) and the Daily Mirror for readership – with all three newsbrands hovering around the 11 million mark.

The printed version of The Times remains strong with over 4.4 million readers, however, with a website locked behind a paywall, its online offering has just over 300,000 readers, a fraction of its key rivals.

Currently, only the Sun, The Daily Telegraph, The Times and the Financial Times have any sort of paywall implemented – with the latter now opting out of NRS reporting entirely.

Note: from 17 September, NRS will be launching its combined mobile and tablet data report across selected brands. This will be the first ever insight into the consumption of content across mobile and tablets as well as print and PC.