How Reach returned to audience growth after two years of decline

Reach was chasing the same readers with the same content, says audience director Martin Little.

Reach audience director (distribution) Martin Little on stage at the WAN-IFRA World News Media Congress with a slide behind him showing logos of many Reach brands — Reach audience director (distribution) Martin Little on stage at the WAN-IFRA World News Media Congress in Krakow on 5 May 2025

Reach has returned to audience growth after experiencing double-digit declines in 2023 and 2024.

Audience director (digital distribution and marketing) Martin Little described Reach, the UK’s largest commercial publisher, as being “like an oil tanker with the turning circle of a Mini Cooper” because of the speed it had executed a turnaround in its audience decline.

Reach had been sitting on a combined monthly audience of 42 million people, Little told the WAN-IFRA World News Media Congress in Krakow last week, but it then “started to go into reverse” in 2023 amid widespread referral declines from Google and Facebook.