The i paper and the Daily Express have seen the fastest readership growth among UK national newsbrands across print and online in the past year, according to the latest Pamco audience figures.
Both titles grew their total monthly brand reach by more than 50 per cent – the Express to 21.7m and the i to 7.3m.
Pamco replaced the UK National Readership Survey last year as the industry standard audience measurement for news publishers.
Its latest results, which are released on a quarterly basis, cover the year from October 2018 to September 2019 and include associated websites.
The Sun and the Mirror have remained the two most-read UK national newsbrands for a second quarter in a row.
The Sun had a total monthly brand reach of 33.9m across its website, two print titles, and its bingo and fantasy football websites.
It was the most-read national newsbrand on both mobile and tablet, with a monthly reach of 26.9m and 3.6m respectively.
Free daily the Metro was the most-read newsbrand in print with a reach of 9.1m, while the Guardian remained the most-read on desktop on 6.2m.
Scroll down for the full Pamco total brand reach figures
Newsworks, the marketing body for national newspapers, said the Pamco figures showed UK journalism reaches greater audiences in this country than the US-based tech giants.
UK national newsbrands now reach a combined monthly audience of 47.9m people per year, putting them “comfortably ahead” of Facebook (including the Facebook-owned Messenger, Whatsapp and Instagram platforms) on 42.6m and Google on 41.5m.
National newsbrands grew their daily digital readership by 23.6 per cent year-on-year to 18.6m and monthly readership by 6.4 per cent to 38.2m.
By comparison, Google’s daily reach fell by 7.4 per cent to 26.2m as its monthly reach grew by 1.3 per cent to 41.5m. Facebook grew its daily reach by three per cent to 29.3m and monthly by 1.6 per cent to 42.6m.
Tracy De Groose, executive chair of Newsworks, said: “Real journalism. Real audiences. Real reach. These latest figures from Pamco are further evidence that concentrating digital spend into quality journalistic environments delivers.
“News readership is at record levels – and it is still growing – as more and more people are demanding reliable and trusted sources of news, analysis and insight.
“To outperform the platforms across these audience metrics is impressive and as the digital world continues to shift, the next phase of digital advertising is looking significantly brighter for publishers.”
Among online national newsbrands, 87 per cent of people who said they read the Guardian trusted what they read on its website, while the Sun and the Star were the least trusted on 40 per cent each.
In print, the Observer and the Scottish Herald were the most trusted on 89 per cent, while the Sun and Sun on Sunday were least trusted with 47 and 49 per cent respectively.
Pamco UK national newsbrands’ total monthly brand reach October 2018-September 2019 (including September 2019 Comscore data):
| Newsbrand (inc. Sunday titles) | Total monthly brand reach (millions) |
| Sun | 33,918 |
| Mirror | 27,760 |
| 26,530 | |
| Metro | 25,188 |
| Guardian | 24,042 |
| Independent | 21,903 |
| Express | 21,689 |
| Telegraph | 20,873 |
| Evening Standard | 14,962 |
| Times | 9,197 |
| i | 7,348 |
| Daily Star | 6,864 |
| Daily Record | 5,857 |
Picture: Reuters/Andrew Winning
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