National newspaper brands lost 3m daily digital readers in the second quarter of 2020 after interest in Covid-19 news spiked in March.
But combined print and digital audiences still continued to grow at a rate of 20% year-on-year.
The latest Pamco data shows 22m people were reading national news online every day in June, up 3.7m compared to the same period in 2019.
Trade association Newsworks said the 20% year on year growth showed “the public’s ongoing demand for trusted news amidst a global coronavirus pandemic, a rise in disinformation and attacks on free speech”.
The latest readership estimates combine Comscore digital data for June 2020 with print data for April 2019 to March 2020. The print data used is the same as the previous Pamco release as the Covid-19 lockdown halted the face-to-face interviewing that is normally held as part of the survey.
Overall, national news readership is estimated at 28m daily readers across print and digital, reaching 43m people per week and 46m per month.
The figures do show a dip from the first quarter of 2020, from 25m daily digital readers to 22m.
But this is likely to be because of a major spike in readership at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic in March.
Comscore online readership figures for June, the latest available which are those used in the latest Pamco estimates, indicate online readers dipped as Covid-19 reader fatigue hit but that they still stayed engaged above 2019 levels.
UK national newsbrand online readership for June 2020 (Comscore):
NB: Digital readership for the Telegraph and the i have been underreported due to a Comscore tagging issue. The FT chooses not to be audited by Pamco.
| Newsbrand | Phone (000) | Tablet (000) | Desktop (000) | Total (not deduped) (000) | % change from March 2020 |
| Sun | 30182 | 3309 | 3598 | 37089 | -12% |
| The Mail | 27852 | 2457 | 4165 | 34474 | -9% |
| Mirror | 26602 | 3105 | 2681 | 32388 | -1% |
| The Guardian | 23499 | 2502 | 6339 | 32340 | -16% |
| Independent | 23841 | 2272 | 4490 | 30603 | -19% |
| Express | 23310 | 2380 | 3861 | 29551 | -8% |
| Metro | 18457 | 1799 | 2252 | 22508 | -27% |
| The Telegraph* | 16827 | 2060 | 1836 | 20723 | -34% |
| Evening Standard | 13433 | 1754 | 1707 | 16894 | -16% |
| The Times | 10870 | 1650 | 988 | 13508 | -9% |
| Daily Star | 10940 | 805 | 540 | 12285 | 7% |
| Daily Record | 6155 | 605 | 390 | 7150 | 5% |
| The Scotsman | 3332 | 303 | 434 | 4069 | -32% |
| i* | 3230 | 389 | 379 | 3998 | -52% |
| The Yorkshire Post | 1416 | 142 | 90 | 1648 | 46% |
| The Herald | 1168 | 131 | 177 | 1476 | -14% |
Jo Allan, managing director at Newsworks, said: “At a time of national crisis and during the height of lockdown people needed reassurance, clarity and information they knew they could trust.
“With that came an unprecedented surge on top of the already strong growth in readership our news brands were experiencing. To have attracted nearly 4m more daily readers across our national digital titles over the last year is phenomenal.”
The Times saw the biggest year-on-year growth in its total monthly brand reach of 74%, followed by the Daily Star which was up 47%.
The Sun remains the most-read UK newspaper brand with a monthly brand reach of 36.5m, followed by The Mail at 34.2m and The Mirror at 31.7m.
The Sun also has the biggest brand reach on the phone, tablet and print platforms. The Guardian is the biggest on desktop.
The year-on-year growth across the sector came solely from digital as print reach fell at every title.
The Yorkshire Post, Daily Record and Daily Star websites were the only major UK national newspaper websites to continue growing their online audiences after the peak of interest in Covid-19 news in March.
The Comscore figures show every other UK national news website lost a fifth of their monthly online audience between March and June.
The Yorkshire Post was the only newsbrand that saw severe drops in mobile, tablet and desktop reach in March – but subsequently made up for it by growing 46% in three months.
The Daily Star grew its monthly digital audience by 7% while the Mirror, its sister title at Reach, saw decline of only 1%.
Excluding the Telegraph and the i websites, as their June figures were underreported due to a tagging issue, the titles with the biggest digital drops between March and June were The Scotsman (-32%) and Metro (-27%).
Pamco UK national newsbrands’ total monthly brand reach for Q2 2020 (including June 2020 Comscore data):
NB: Digital readership for the Telegraph and the i have been underreported due to a Comscore tagging issue. The FT chooses not to be audited by Pamco.
| Newsbrand (inc. all print and digital titles) | Total monthly brand reach Q2-2020 (000) | Total monthly brand reach Q1-2020 (000) | Period % change | Year % change |
| Sun | 36502 | 39792 | -8% | 11% |
| The Mail | 34231 | 36035 | -5% | 35% |
| Mirror | 31737 | 31732 | 0% | 16% |
| The Guardian | 29215 | 35592 | -18% | 22% |
| Independent | 28225 | 33777 | -16% | 23% |
| Express | 28169 | 29685 | -5% | 14% |
| Metro FREE | 25751 | 32277 | -20% | 4% |
| The Telegraph* | 20915 | 29126 | -28%* | -3%* |
| Evening Standard FREE | 17647 | 20387 | -13% | 11% |
| The Times | 14975 | 16025 | -7% | 74% |
| Daily Star | 12903 | 12034 | 7% | 47% |
| Daily Record | 7503 | 7118 | 5% | 30% |
| i* | 4901 | 8680 | -44%* | 25%* |
| The Scotsman | 4086 | 5862 | -30% | 36% |
| The Yorkshire Post | 1847 | 1332 | 39% | 52% |
| The Herald | 1635 | 1862 | -12% | 23% |
Pamco newsbrand readership estimates for Q2 2020:
| Monthly (000s) | YoY change | Weekly (000s) | YoY change | Daily (000s) | YoY change | ||||
| % | (000s) | % | (000s) | % | (000s) | ||||
| News sector* ** | 49,123 | 1% | 725 | 47,484 | 5% | 2,366 | 37,819 | 18% | 5,696 |
| National news brands* | 46,431 | 3% | 1,340 | 43,016 | 4% | 1,796 | 28,138 | 9% | 2,258 |
| National news brands digital | 40,735 | 7% | 2,549 | 37,078 | 10% | 3,463 | 22,318 | 20% | 3,694 |
| National news brands print* | 24,344 | -6% | -1,423 | 19,598 | -6% | -1,330 | 10,278 | -8% | -860 |
| Facebook (inc. Whatsapp, Facebook, Instagram) | 44,346 | 5% | 1,950 | 42,708 | 10% | 3,837 | 38,100 | 35% | 9,816 |
| 39,412 | -4% | -1,756 | 34,334 | -8% | -3,022 | 25,133 | 0% | -56 | |
*Print audience estimates used are the same as in the previous Pamco release as face-to-face interviewing was stopped because of Covid-19 on 17 March. The print figures are fused with the latest Comscore data for June.
** News sector comprises the following titles:
Daily Star, Evening Standard, Daily Express, i, The Independent, Daily Mail, Metro, Daily Mirror, The Sun, The Guardian, The Daily Telegraph, The Times, Sunday People, Sunday Telegraph, Sunday Times, Observer, Sunday Express, Sun on Sunday, Daily Star Sunday, Sunday Mirror, Mail on Sunday, The Herald, The Scotsman, Yorkshire Post, Daily Record, Birmingham Mail, Bristol Post, Burton Mail, Cambridge Evening News, Coventry Telegraph, Daily Post, Derby Telegraph, Grimsby Telegraph, Huddersfield Daily Examiner, Hull Daily Mail, Leicester Mercury, Liverpool Echo, Manchester Evening News, Newcastle Journal, Nottingham Post, Shropshire Star, South Wales Echo, South Wales Evening Post, Stoke The Sentinel, The Chronicle, The Gazette, The Herald, Western Mail, West Midlands Express & Star, Western Daily Press & Western Morning News, Lancashire Evening Post, The Daily Echo – Bournemouth, The Star (Sheffield, Doncaster), Portsmouth News and Sports, Oxford Mail, Southern Daily Echo, Swindon Advertiser, The Argus – Brighton and York – The Press.
Picture: Reuters/Andrew Winning
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