PAMCo: National newsbrand readership surged in run up to Covid-19

The latest cross-platform audience figures for UK newsbrands (covering April 19 to March 20) have revealed a considerable boost in national newsbrand readership in the lead up to the Covid-19 pandemic and nationwide lockdown.

According to PAMCo – which shows ‘total brand reach’ by combining print and digital across different devices – all national titles saw their monthly total brand reach grow significantly both over the period and over the year, despite all continuing to record declining print readership.

The best performing national title over the period was the Daily Star, which boosted its total brand reach by 55.9% over the period and 25.8% over the year to just over 12m. The newsbrand offset a -4.8% PoP drop in print reach with an enormous 71.6% jump on phone.

Also in the popular market, the Mirror grew its monthly reach by 8.1% PoP and 25.5% YoY to 31.7m, while the Sun (which remains the most popular title) jumped 7.3% PoP and 34% YoY to a little under 40m.

Meanwhile, the freebie titles performed perhaps surprisingly well, making up for falling print readership with digital growth. The Evening Standard grew 33.4% PoP and 19.3% YoY to 20.4m, while the Metro grew 15.9% PoP and 63.1% YoY to 32.3m.

It was a similar story in the quality market – all five newsbrands enjoyed notable boosts to their readerships. The Guardian grew its monthly reach the most over the period, up 46.6% (and 42.7% over the year) to 35.6m – including a 62.5% PoP rise in phone reach.

The Times was up 39.3% PoP and 87.3% YoY to just over 16m, the Independent was up 37.5% PoP and 73.4% YoY to 33.8m, The Telegraph was up 34.4% PoP and 28.5% YoY to 29.1m, and the i was up 12.8% PoP and 40.7% YoY to 8.7m.

Mid-market title The Mail, meanwhile, grew its reach 26.7% over the period and 15.8% over the year to accumulate a total reach of more than 36m.

Overall, national news readership soared by an extra 6.6 million daily digital readers, according to national newsbrand marketing body Newsworks. National daily readership over print and digital combined has now surpassed 30 million for the first time, while the entire UK newsbrand sector (including regional titles) reaches 49 million people a month, 48 million a week and 40 million people a day.

A full breakdown for each title by platform can be found in the tables below.