NRS National Newspaper Round-Up – June 2003
The latest NRS figures for the six months to June 2003 reveal a less than impressive period for the Daily Mirror, which saw readership decline by 11.6% year on year to below the 5 million mark.
Trinity Mirror recently announced a raft of job cuts across the Daily Mirror‘s editorial division and closed its M and Look magazines as part of a wider cost cutting initiative launched by the company’s recently appointed chief executive, Sly Bailey (see Jobs Go At The Daily Mirror As Cost Cutting Continues).
The paper’s Sunday siblings, Sunday Mirror and People, also had a rough ride in the six months to June. The former saw readership shrink by 11.6% year on year to just above 4.8 million and the latter slipped by 19% during the same period to 2.5 million.
Meanwhile, News International’s Sun, which has been under the editorship of Rebecca Wade for more than six months (see New Sun Editor Says Job Is Best In Newspapers), proved unable to shine in the tabloid market. The UK’s most popular daily paper saw readership decline by 5.9% year on year to just under 8.8 million. News Of The World also floundered in the six months to June, with readership dipping by 3.3% to just over 9.5 million.
Richard Desmond’s Daily Star was the only popular title to see readership increase in the first half of this year. The paper, which recently spawned a Sunday spin-off (see NewsLine Feature: Sunday Star Hopes To Shine), improved by a solid 17.1% year on year to just below the 2 million mark.
Elsewhere, the Independent On Sunday and the Times outperformed their rivals in the broadsheet sector. The former, whose parent company recently announced that circulation revenues continue to grow (see INM Reports Strong Start To Year), saw readership improve by an impressive 20.4% year on year to 756,000, while the latter rose by a solid 6.7% during the same period to 1,827,000.
The Observer, which recently launched a new monthly music magazine (see Observer Launches New Monthly Music Title), proved less fortunate in the six months to June, with readership shrinking by 14.6% year on year to 1,178,000. However, the Guardian managed to record a slight 0.9% increase during the first half of this year to 1,379,000.
The Daily Mail experienced the biggest increase in actual terms, adding 279,000 readers to bring its total for the six months to June to almost 6 million. The title’s closest mid-market rival, the Daily Express, added a more modest 15,000 readers to top the 2 million mark.
The Mail On Sunday saw readership improve by 2.4% year on year to just over 6 million, however, this was overshadowed by a more notable 4.4 increase at the Sunday Express, which claimed more than 2.2 million readers in the six months to June.
| National Newspaper NRS Figures – June 2003 | ||||
| Title | Jan-Jun 02 | Jan-Jun 03 | Actual Change | % Change |
| Daily Express | 2,074,000 | 2,089,000 | 15,000 | 0.7 |
| Daily Mail | 5,654,000 | 5,933,000 | 279,000 | 4.9 |
| Daily Mirror | 5,562,000 | 4,918,000 | -644,000 | -11.6 |
| Daily Record | 1,587,000 | 1,431,000 | -156,000 | -9.8 |
| Daily Star | 1,673,000 | 1,959,000 | 286,000 | 17.1 |
| Daily Star Sunday | n/a | 1,036,000 | n/a | n/a |
| Daily Telegraph | 2,496,000 | 2,288,000 | -208,000 | -8.3 |
| Financial Times | 586,000 | 509,000 | -77,000 | -13.1 |
| Guardian | 1,367,000 | 1,379,000 | 12,000 | 0.9 |
| Independent | 607,000 | 608,000 | 1,000 | 0.2 |
| Independent On Sunday | 628,000 | 756,000 | 128,000 | 20.4 |
| Mail On Sunday | 5,903,000 | 6,045,000 | 142,000 | 2.4 |
| News Of The World | 9,839,000 | 9,510,000 | -329,000 | -3.3 |
| Observer | 1,379,000 | 1,178,000 | -201,000 | -14.6 |
| People | 3,047,000 | 2,467,000 | -580,000 | -19.0 |
| Sun | 9,306,000 | 8,755,000 | -551,000 | -5.9 |
| Sunday Express | 2,108,000 | 2,201,000 | 93,000 | 4.4 |
| Sunday Mirror | 5,449,000 | 4,816,000 | -633,000 | -11.6 |
| Sunday Telegraph | 2,135,000 | 2,051,000 | -84,000 | -3.9 |
| Sunday Times | 3,279,000 | 3,277,000 | -2,000 | -0.1 |
| Times | 1,712,000 | 1,827,000 | 115,000 | 6.7 |
| Total | 66,391,000 | 65,033,000 | -1,358,000 | -2.0 |
