UK Newspaper Readership 2013

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The NRS, the UK equivalent to the JNRS here, was released on the 23rd August. The survey is similar to our own (now) in that it takes account of readership of a paper in both print and online. It also makes for interesting data.

Looking to the future of news organisations first:  We see that the most visited news website in the survey is the Daily Mail reaching 2,110,000 UK citizens (subjects) every day (the survey data is limited to the UK only)

This is followed by the Guardian at 1,391,000 visitors a day and then the Telegraph at 815,000 visitors per day – but notably – all paying guests. The Telegraph, The Times and F.T. are all behind a paywall and all their visitors are paying for the privilege of viewing the website. The Sun is as well, but the research did not reflect this as they only began to charge in August.  

The big question is not will the Mail slip behind a paywall, but when will this happen. With 2m+ visitors, this has to give rise to formulating some strategy to capitalise financially their vast number of visitors.

But the big numbers are the ‘brand footprints’ – how far a news brand extends when both in print and web are combined. There is no hard and fast rule on this one as each brand’s combination is very different and a very different mix.

The paper with the biggest ‘footprint’ is The Sun/Sunday with a reach of just shy of 7m people every day. However its contribution from the net is one of the lowest in the survey with the web contributing only an extra 9% to its overall reach.

 And that’s a feature and a big problem for tabloids as the web begins to become the dominant medium for news brands.  Their readers are, by and large, are not tech orientated  and its probably very much down to their readership profile- scaffolders don’t carry tablets to work and don’t really have the opportunity to browse the net during working hours, to be glib about it. All the Tabloids on in the survey have made little or no inroads into capturing an audience on the web and the biggest tabloid manages only a 16% contribution from the net to its overall reach.   

The Sun has gone behind a paywall this month and its e-cert will be available mid September showing how many went over the wall with it. But its pre-August marketing campaign to entice people to follow it was based on a deal it hammered out with the Barkley’s Premier League. The USP was not the papers current content, but the fact that it was able to show instant clips of premier league goals, as they happen, to paywall subscribers.  

The other interesting feature in the data is that contribution to the overall footprint from the net and how it varies vastly between brands.

The outright leader here is the Guardian extending its reach two-and-a-half times when its web visitors are counted. It’s a great figure in that it extends it reach so far and tips over 2m ‘readers’ per day. One the other hand, and looking at the established business model for newspapers, its says that 2.5 times as many people will read you online and will  not bother to purchase you in a printed form. 

Group Site Visitors
Daily Mail/The Mail on Sunday dailymail.co.uk/mailonsunday.co.uk 2110
The Guardian/The Observer guardian.co.uk 1391
The Daily / Sunday Telegraph** telegraph.co.uk 815
The Sun/Sun (Sunday) thesun.co.uk/thescottishsun.co.uk 717
Daily/Sunday Mirror/Sunday People mirror.co.uk/people.co.uk 480
The Independent/IoS/i independent.co.uk 331
Financial Times** ft.com 90
Daily Record/Sunday Mail dailyrecord.co.uk 61
Daily/Sunday Express express.co.uk 60
Times/Sunday Times** thetimes.co.uk/thesundaytimes.co.uk 48
Star/Daily Star Sunday  dailystar.co.uk 35

 

 Print Title(s) Print Reach Website Combined Inc. 
000s 000s 000s 000s 000s
Quality
Financial Times 305 0.60% 90 393 29%
The Daily Telegraph 1348 2.60% 815 2106 56%
The Daily/Sunday Telegraph 1415 2.80% 815 2171 53%
The Guardian 935 1.80% 1391 2211 136%
The Guardian/The Observer 1005 2.00% 1391 2271 126%
The Independent 397 0.80% 331 719 81%
The Independent/IoS 421 0.80% 331 743 76%
The Independent/IoS/i 931 1.80% 331 1249 34%
The Times 1261 2.50% 38 1297 3%
The Times/Sunday Times 1534 3.00% 48 1579 3%
Mid-market
Daily Express 1123 2.20% 60 1181 5%
Daily/Sunday Express 1216 2.40% 60 1274 5%
Daily Mail 4298 8.40% 2110 6062 41%
Daily/ Mail on Sunday 4580 9.00% 2110 6322 38%
Popular
Daily Mirror 2775 5.40% 480 3225 16%
Daily /Sunday Mirror 2949 5.80% 480 3398 15%
Daily /Sunday Mirror/People 3035 5.90% 480 3483 15%
Daily Record 764 1.50% 61 819 7%
Daily Record/Sunday Mail 819 1.60% 61 874 7%
Daily Star 1211 2.40% 35 1245 3%
Daily Star/Daily Star Sunday  1244 2.40% 35 1278 3%
The Sun 6435 12.60% 717 6999 9%
The Sun/ Sun (Sunday) 6729 13.20% 717 7287 8%

 

 Print Title(s) Website(s) Print Print Reach Website Combined Web Inc. 
000s 000s 000s 000s 000s
Quality
Financial Times ft.com 305 0.60% 90 393 29%
The Daily Telegraph telegraph.co.uk 1348 2.60% 815 2106 56%
The Daily Telegraph/The Sunday Telegraph telegraph.co.uk 1415 2.80% 815 2171 53%
The Guardian guardian.co.uk 935 1.80% 1391 2211 136%
The Guardian/The Observer guardian.co.uk 1005 2.00% 1391 2271 126%
The Independent independent.co.uk 397 0.80% 331 719 81%
The Independent/The Independent on Sunday independent.co.uk 421 0.80% 331 743 76%
The Independent/The Independent on Sunday/i independent.co.uk 931 1.80% 331 1249 34%
The Times thetimes.co.uk 1261 2.50% 38 1297 3%
The Times/The Sunday Times thetimes.co.uk/thesundaytimes.co.uk 1534 3.00% 48 1579 3%
Mid-market
Daily Express express.co.uk 1123 2.20% 60 1181 5%
Daily Express/Sunday Express express.co.uk 1216 2.40% 60 1274 5%
Daily Mail dailymail.co.uk 4298 8.40% 2110 6062 41%
Daily Mail/The Mail on Sunday dailymail.co.uk/mailonsunday.co.uk 4580 9.00% 2110 6322 38%
Popular
Daily Mirror mirror.co.uk 2775 5.40% 480 3225 16%
Daily Mirror/Sunday Mirror mirror.co.uk 2949 5.80% 480 3398 15%
Daily Mirror/Sunday Mirror/Sunday People mirror.co.uk/people.co.uk 3035 5.90% 480 3483 15%
Daily Record dailyrecord.co.uk 764 1.50% 61 819 7%
Daily Record/Sunday Mail (Scotland) dailyrecord.co.uk 819 1.60% 61 874 7%
Daily Star dailystar.co.uk 1211 2.40% 35 1245 3%
Daily Star/Daily Star Sunday  dailystar.co.uk 1244 2.40% 35 1278 3%
The Sun thesun.co.uk/thescottishsun.co.uk 6435 12.60% 717 6999 9%
The Sun/The Sun (Sunday) thesun.co.uk/thescottishsun.co.uk 6729 13.20% 717 7287 8%

 

 

 

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