Sun, Daily Mail and Times buck trend with readership increases

by John Reynolds, Media Week 21-Aug-08, 15:20

LONDON - News International-owned titles The Sun and The Times, and Associated Newspapers' the Daily Mail, were the only paid-for national newspaper titles to register year-on-year increases in readership, according to the National Readership Survey.

The 12-month NRS data, for the period July 2007 to June 2008, revealed that The Sun inched up 3% in readership year on year to 8,031,000, while the Daily Mail was also up 3% to 5,347,000, ahead of The Times, which was up 2% to 1,731,000.

The Sun, the Daily Mail and the Daily Mirror were the top three papers in terms of readership, while the Financial Times, down 5% to 377,000, and The Independent, down 9% to 702,000, languished at the bottom of the list of national daily paid-for titles.

The NRS is based on interviews with a representative sample of 36,000 adults in Great Britain, which take place every year, and its estimates are used by publishers and agencies as a tool for buying and selling ads across newspapers and magazines.