…as The Independent loses business readers to tabloids

The Independent is read by fewer senior business people than either The Mirror or The Express.

The paper is seen by only 6.7 per cent of this category of reader, according to the 1997 British Business Survey (BBS) which measures the reading patterns of business people. This compares with 9.3 per cent of senior business people who read The Express and 7.5 per cent who read The Mirror.

BBS is prepared for the Business Media Research Committee (BMRC) by RSL. The survey universe is estimated to be 1,234,000. Over 60,000 addresses were sampled and issued to interviewers.

The Daily Telegraph is the paper most read by senior business people, ahead of the Financial Times by nine percentage points at 18.5 per cent.

In the Sunday newspaper market, The Sunday Times is the clear leader, read by 30.7 per cent of senior businessmen and 38.7 per cent of board directors.

Its nearest rival is The Mail on Sunday, read by 22.8 per cent of senior businessmen.

The Independent on Sunday languishes behind its Sunday rivals – it is read by fewer than half as many senior people in business as The News of the World at only 5.9 per cent of the category. The News of the World is read by 12 per cent of senior business people.

Surprisingly, the national daily with the youngest readership is the Financial Times.