View all newsletters
Sign up for our free email newsletters

Fighting for quality news media in the digital age.

  1. Publishers
  2. Digital Journalism
September 19, 2014

NRS says mobile now most popular way to access websites of Mail Online, Metro and Mirror

By Dominic Ponsford

Mail Online, Metro and the Mirror all now attract more readers to their websites from mobiles than they do from personal computers.

New evidence of the shift from desktop to mobile news readership is provided in the latest figures from the National Readership Survey, which include mobile for the first time.

The data suggests Mail Online's mobile raedership in the UK  stands at 10.8m per month, versus 9.6m on personal computers. The NRS claims that the Mirror now attracts 6.2m readers a month on mobile devices, versus 4.9m on PCs, and Metro 3.6m on mobile versus 2.9m on PCs.

The NRS data combines print readership for the year to June 2014 with Comscore website data for June 2014. Both web and print numbers are based on a survey of the general public, rather than actual circulation or information from server logs.

The figures suggest that The Guardian and the Telegraph are neck and neck in terms of UK readership with both achieving a monthly reach of 16.3m. The term ‘reach’ equates to the number of people reading the paper or the website at least once.

The NRS suggests that the Daily Mail/Mail Online is the most read national newspaper brand in the UK with a monthly reach of 23.4m. According to the Mail, this means it now reaches 48.3 per cent of UK adults every month.

According to the Mail, its online readers spend an average of 49.9 minutes with the website very month and visit it an average of 13.4 times.

Content from our partners
How PA Media is helping newspapers make the digital transition
Publishing on the open web is broken, how generative AI could help fix it
Impress: Regulation, arbitration and complaints resolution

The NRS claims that The Times has a print readership 4.4m (which puts it ahead of the Daily Telegraph and The Guardian in print-only terms).

But The Times’s UK digital readership said by the NRS to be around 356,000 per month, compared with 12.5m for both The Guardian and the Telegraph.

The NRS data suggests that Guardian print readership is almost as high as the Daily Telegraph, despite having much less than half the circulation. The NRS said this is because The Guardian tends to be passed on between readers more.

The Guardian’s monthly print readership reach for the year to June is estimated at 3.8m by NRS, versus a current ABC print circulation of 178,000.

The Telegraph’s monthly print readership is estimated at 4.1m (versus an ABC of 512,000).

The new figures from the NRS are just for daily titles and their websites and omit The Sun, Express and Star titles.

UK national daily newspaper print and online readership (source NRS)



Title Net monthly reach Print reach PC reach Mobile reach
Daily Mail/ Mail Online 23,365,000 10,883,000 9,557,000 10,793,000
The Guardian/ Theguardian.com 16,276,000 3,810,000 9,579,000 7,354,000
Daily Telegraph/ Telegraph.co.uk 16,271,000 4,066,000 8,605,000 7,509,000
Daily Mirror/ Mirror.co.uk 15,563,000 6,962,000 4,877,000 6,240,000
Metro/ Metro.co.uk 14,217,000 10,027,000 2,920,000 3,645,000
The Independent/ Independent.co.uk 9,863,000 2,235,000 4,919,000 4,366,000
Evening Standard/ Standard.co.uk 6,190,000 4,622,000 1,334,000 969,000
The Times/ Thetimes.co.uk 4,798,000 4,442,000 302,000 298,000
The Scotsman/ Scotsman.com 1,274,000 368,000 632,000 428,000

Figures are to the nearest 100,000. 

Sponsored message

On October 16 many of the UK's leading figures from digital journalism will gather at The News Building, London Bridge, to discuss new ways of making journalism work on mobile.

News on the Move III is organised by Press Gazette and held in association with News UK. Speakers include: News UK chief executive Mike Darcey, Guardian mobile editor Subhajit Banerjee, BBC news mobile editor Nathalie Malinarich, Buzzfeed UK editor Luke Lewis and former head of digital at Metro.co.uk (now digital director of City AM) Martin Ashplant. More details here. 

Topics in this article :

Email pged@pressgazette.co.uk to point out mistakes, provide story tips or send in a letter for publication on our "Letters Page" blog

Select and enter your email address Weekly insight into the big strategic issues affecting the future of the news industry. Essential reading for media leaders every Thursday. Your morning brew of news about the world of news from Press Gazette and elsewhere in the media. Sent at around 10am UK time. Our weekly does of strategic insight about the future of news media aimed at US readers. A fortnightly update from the front-line of news and advertising. Aimed at marketers and those involved in the advertising industry.
  • Business owner/co-owner
  • CEO
  • COO
  • CFO
  • CTO
  • Chairperson
  • Non-Exec Director
  • Other C-Suite
  • Managing Director
  • President/Partner
  • Senior Executive/SVP or Corporate VP or equivalent
  • Director or equivalent
  • Group or Senior Manager
  • Head of Department/Function
  • Manager
  • Non-manager
  • Retired
  • Other
Visit our privacy Policy for more information about our services, how New Statesman Media Group may use, process and share your personal data, including information on your rights in respect of your personal data and how you can unsubscribe from future marketing communications.
Thank you

Thanks for subscribing.

Websites in our network