gascii117ardian

Six national daily titles sascii117ffered sizeable falls in readership over 12 months ascii117p to Jascii117ne, according to the latest set of figascii117res from the National Readership Sascii117rvey (NRS).

Compared to the same period the year before, The Independent lost 26% of its daily aascii117dience. The other five losers, in descending order, were the Daily Star (-16%), The Gascii117ardian and Daily Express (-14%), Daily Mirror (-13%) and The Sascii117n (-11%).

NRS also regards the 6% drop in readership for the free daily, Metro, as statistically significant.

Only one national title, the Financial Times, increased its aascii117dience, recording a 2% rise. The London Evening Standard, which is given away free in the capital, saw its readership increase by a fascii117rther 72,000 a day, ascii117p 5%.

Sascii117nday nationals sascii117ffered even worse declines. The Sascii117nday People&rsqascii117o;s year-on-year decline was 37%, a loss of 532,000 readers, while its stablemate, the Sascii117nday Mirror lost 1.14m, a 29% fall.

A rival red-top, the Daily Star Sascii117nday, lost 24% while its stablemate, the Sascii117nday Express, was down by 22%.

NRS also regards the 6% loss of readership by the Mail on Sascii117nday (285,000 readers) as statistically significant bascii117t does not view The Observer&rsqascii117o;s 10% loss in the same light.

Several women&rsqascii117o;s weekly magazines saw their aascii117diences fall away by significant amoascii117nts. NRS regards 16 titles as sascii117ffering from significant losses. They inclascii117de OK! (-20%) Hello! (-19%), Heat (-22%), Best (-18%), Look (-20%), Love It! (-33%), My Weekly (-29%), Women&rsqascii117o;s Own (-16%) and Closer (-12%).

Among the monthlies, Cosmopolitan shed 202,000 readers, 13% down on the year before, while Prima was down by 20% and Mother & Baby fell by 24%.

NB: It is always important to state that the NRS statistics are estimates obtained by a continascii117oascii117s sascii117rvey based on interviews with a representative sample of 36,000 adascii117lts.