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Scottish daily bucks trend with 13pc readership rise

A Scottish daily newspaper is bucking the trend of falling reader numbers by seeing a rise of 13pc, according to the latest estimate on readership figures.

Aberdeen-based title The Press and Journal saw its estimated readers rise from 175,000 to 197,000 in figures released by the National Readership Survey for the 12 months to December 2012.

It is the only regional title included in the survey to record an increase in readers of its printed product.

Figures for other titles saw readership for The Courier, Dundee, fall 25pc from 159,000 to 119,000 over the period, while the Yorkshire Post’s readers fell 17pc from 144,000 to 120,000.

The figures from the National Readership Survey are based on surveys with thousands of people and estimate the total number of readers of each title from that, differing from the Audit Bureau of Circulation figures which are based on a newspaper’s sales.

The latest figures from the NRS only show readers of the print product instead of combined print and digital data which the NRS publishes separately.

Of the Sunday titles covered by the survey, the Sunday Herald, Sunday Post and Sunday Mail all saw double-digit readership falls, of 17pc, 14pc and 13pc respectively.

The number of estimated readers, followed by the percentage increase or decrease, is shown below.

Aberdeen Press & Journal, 197,000 +13pc

Dundee Courier & Advertiser 119,000 -25pc

Daily Record 809,000 -8pc

The Herald 144,000 -6pc

Glasgow Evening Times 139,000 -7pc

The Scotsman 126,000 -8pc

Yorkshire Post 120,000 -17pc

Sunday titles

Sunday Herald 111,000 -17pc

Sunday Mail 925,000 -13pc

The Sunday Post 726,000 -14pc

Scotland on Sunday 146,000 -8pc

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  • February 19, 2013 at 9:10 am
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    Due to margins of error, the NRS figures fluctuate wildly from period to period for regional publications. It’s unhelpful that publishers would shout about big growths in their NRS readership figures because it’s inevitable that the figures will plummet next year; will they be as vocal when that happens?

    In the past couple of years, sales of the P&J have been falling by around 5% per annum yet NRS is reporting a 13% increase in average issue readership. In contrast, the Dundee Courier has reported sales declines of around 6% per annum yet has a readership slump of 25%.

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