NRS reveals readership drops for Independent and Express

The Independent News & Media and Express Newspapers were the big year-on-year losers in the latest National Readership Survey. In contrast, The Guardian posted strong growth.

The weekday editions of The Independent saw an 8% fall between October 2007 and September 2008, compared with the previous corresponding period. It recorded a readership of 722,000.

Its Sunday edition similarly fell 11% year on year to 727,000. Its supplements The Independent Magazine, The Information and Save & Spend performed even more poorly, respectively recording falls of over 20%.

Express Newspapers’ Daily Star saw a 16% fall to 1.4 million during the week, while the Daily Star Sunday fell 11% to 871,000. The Daily Express also fell 5% to 1.6 million, while its Sunday edition fell 9% to 1.77 million.

Trinity Mirror’s Daily Mirror saw a 6% decline to 3.6 million, while the Sunday Mirror fell 6% to four million. Its We Love Telly! supplement similarly declined by 14%. The publisher’s other newspaper The People also fell 7% to 1.5 million. However, the Daily Record rose 3% to 1.17 million.

On a more positive note, Guardian News & Media’s The Guardian six day edition saw a readership rise of 4% to 1.24 million, while its supplements The Guide, Money and Weekend all rose between 10-12% respectively.

The Financial Times was also a strong performer, rising 3% to 387,000. Its supplement FT Money was also strong rising 16% to 265,000.

Associated Newspapers’ free newspaper Metro saw strong growth, with a 26% year on year rise to 3.2 million. However the Evening Standard was weak, falling 13% to 597,000. It supplement ES Magazine faired even worse, falling 23% to 582,000.

Other big year on year falls among the Sunday papers included News International’s News of the world, which fell 7% to 7.8 million and The Sunday Times which fell 8% to over three million.