NRS PADD newspapers: Times readers still prefer print

The latest NRS audience measurement figures for the newspaper market have been released today, blending NRS and AMP print readership data for the first time.

The data for the first quarter of 2017 covers the period from April 2016 to March 2017, and is based on 75% NRS print data and 25% AMP print data.

AMP – Audience Measurement for Publishers – is the new currency for published media in the UK. Set to launch early next year, AMP produces de-duplicated brand reach data across mobile, tablet, pc and print.

The new findings, released by PAMCo, the body that oversees the data, reveal that it is now only The Times that has a readership dominated by print, with mobile the breadwinner for the rest of the surveyed titles.

Of The Times‘ 6.4 million-strong audience, 4.1 million of those come from print, while 2.3 million are on mobile.

Metro is the only title with a fairly even split between print and mobile – 10.6 million and 11.3 million, respectively.

For online-only Independent, which has a total audience of 19.1 million, almost 16.4 million of those come from mobile and the rest are on PC.

The Telegraph and Guardian’s readership split across print and digital is almost identical. 18.6 million of The Telegraph’s 24.6 million total are on mobile, while 18.2 million of the Guardian’s 24.2 million are on mobile.

While, most of the Daily Mail’s audience are on mobile (22.7 million out of 31.4 million), it also has a solid PC audience of 7.7 million and a print readership of 9.1 million.

Similarly, of the Sun’s 28.8 million, 21.6 million are on mobile, 4 million on PC and 9.6 million in print.

“The first of our blended NRS data sets shows the almost ubiquitous coverage of published media, with mobile almost equalling print in terms of monthly reach,” said Simon Redican, chief executive of PAMCo.

“Whilst 2017 will be a period of transition between NRS and AMP data sets, the robust data produced will enable the market to continue to plan and trade with confidence.”

Due to the different methodologies, the PAMCo board has mandated that NRS and AMP data should not be compared for commercial or marketing purposes. This means that from Q1 2017 data release onwards, the data should not be compared with previous periods of NRS data. Also, individual periods should not be broken out to compare NRS and AMP data for commercial or marketing purposes, and Newsline has not made any comparisons with any previous results in this article.

Click here for an update on the magazine market