Newsbrands made huge gains in mobile, tablet and desktop audiences as Covid-19 hit UK (Comscore figures in full)

Demand for coronavirus-related news has led to huge leaps in digital audience reach for national newsbrands in the UK, new figures show.

Comscore figures for March show double-digit gains for nearly all titles across desktop, mobile and tablet when compared with figures for November last year, as interest in news on the pandemic surged.

Scroll down for March Comscore figures and comparisons

March saw the first recorded UK death from Covid-19 and strict lockdown measures put in place to slow the spread of the virus.

Figures for phone and desktop reach were up by well over a third on average (39% and 36% respectively) compared to data from November 2019. For tablets the average growth was was just over one fifth (22%).

Pamco figures show The Times grew its mobile reach by 68% from 7.1m last quarter to nearly 12m. The Scotsman was up by 87% to 4.5m, the Daily star by 72% to 10m and The Guardian by 63% to nearly 29m.

On desktop, The Times’ reach was actually down 2% on the previous quarter, while others made large gains. The Express was up 69% to 6.5m, The i by 58% to 1.5m, and The Sun by 53% to 5.2m.

The Scotsman’s desktop reach grew by 149% to just shy of 1m.

The Evening Standard, which has seen its print distribution severely disrupted by the lockdown and is pursuing a digital-first transformation, grew its mobile reach by 48% to 16m and desktop by 30% to 2.5m.

The Yorkshire Post is the only newsbrand not to have recorded digital audience growth across at least one medium, with double-digit decline across mobile, tablet and desktop.

Comscore March 2020 (Pamco):

Newsbrand	Phone (000)	Tablet (000)	Desktop (000)	Total (not deduped) (000)
Sun	32,902	3,808	5,276	41,986
The Guardian	28,932	2,944	9,403	41,279
Independent	28,183	3,026	6,775	37,984
The Mail	28,737	2,716	6,257	37,710
Mirror	26,276	3,046	3,481	32,803
Express	23,083	2,548	6,525	32,156
The Telegraph	22,636	2,436	6,236	31,308
Metro	25,762	2,298	2,918	30,978
Evening Standard	16,030	1,674	2,506	20,210
The Times	11,993	1,759	1,020	14,772
Daily Star	10,039	729	631	11,399
i	6,165	737	1,506	8,408
Daily Record	5,739	506	548	6,793
The Scotsman	4,556	462	988	6,006
The Herald	1,392	136	186	1,714
The Yorkshire Post	901	107	117	1,125

Comscore comparison for phone reach:

Newsbrand	March 2020 (000)	Nov 2019 (000)	% change
Sun	32,902	30,671	7%
The Guardian	28,932	17,804	63%
The Mail	28,737	19,035	51%
Independent	28,183	19,642	43%
Mirror	26,276	23,947	10%
Metro	25,762	20,747	24%
Express	23,083	17,068	35%
The Telegraph	22,636	15,516	46%
Evening Standard	16,030	10,795	48%
The Times	11,993	7,147	68%
Daily Star	10,039	5,851	72%
i	6,165	5,588	10%
Daily Record	5,739	4,524	27%
The Scotsman	4,556	2,433	87%
The Herald	1,392	907	53%
The Yorkshire Post	901	1,234	-27%

Comscore comparison for desktop reach:

Newsbrand	March 2020 (000)	Nov 2019 (000)	% change
The Guardian	9,403	6,574	43%
Independent	6,775	4,847	40%
Express	6,525	3,866	69%
The Mail	6,257	4,504	39%
The Telegraph	6,236	4,591	36%
Sun	5,276	3,441	53%
Mirror	3,481	2,802	24%
Metro	2,918	2,492	17%
Evening Standard	2,506	1,922	30%
i	1,506	951	58%
The Times	1,020	1,042	-2%
The Scotsman	988	397	149%
Daily Star	631	506	25%
Daily Record	548	379	45%
The Herald	186	183	2%
The Yorkshire Post	117	239	-51%

Comscore comparison for tablet reach:

Newsbrand	March 2020 (000)	Nov 2019 (000)	% change
Sun	3,808	3,369	13%
Mirror	3,046	2,816	8%
Independent	3,026	2,336	30%
The Guardian	2,944	2,118	39%
The Mail	2,716	2,900	-6%
Express	2,548	2,165	18%
The Telegraph	2,436	2,176	12%
Metro	2,298	1,825	26%
The Times	1,759	1,170	50%
Evening Standard	1,674	1,384	21%
i	737	600	23%
Daily Star	729	425	72%
Daily Record	506	487	4%
The Scotsman	462	262	76%
The Herald	136	176	-23%
The Yorkshire Post	107	123	-13%