The national news brand with the highest reported drop circulation in the United Kingdom was Sunday People, with a circulation decrease of 19 percent. The leading national paper by circulation, the Daily Mail, saw a drop of 10 percent.

Online newspaper readership

The newspaper industry is having to make major readjustments to accommodate digital readership. Physical paper sales have been falling as consumers increasingly turn to online news outlets. Data on the monthly reach of national newspapers revealed that smartphones are the most popular platform for newspaper consumption across all major news brands, though free paper Metro had the highest print reach thanks to its regular distribution across London.

Journalists

Despite the fall in newspaper circulation, the number of journalists in the UK is climbing. In 2020, over 100 thousand journalists and newspaper and periodical editors were employed in the United Kingdom, the highest number recorded since 2010.

As of June 2024, the News UK paper with the highest average print readership was The Sun (Mon-Sat), with over 1.9 million people having read or looked at an average issue of the publication. The Times had an average readership of under one million in the same time period.

Free newspaper Metro had the highest reported circulation among daily newspapers in the United Kingdom in December 2023 with 951 thousand copies distributed to the public. Ranking second with a paid circulation of 733 thousand was the Daily Mail, followed by free paper Evening Standard with a circulation of 275 thousand. Due to the Sun, Times and Telegraph titles having kept their circulations private since the beginning of 2020, comparing circulations across major news brands has grown more difficult. The Guardian also chose to keep its circulation figures private and as such is not included in this analysis. Daily papers published on Sundays only can be found here.

Newspapers in the UK   Expenditure on newspapers in the UK decreased consistently over the last few decades. In 2005, annual spending on newspapers exceeded 4.4 billion British pounds, whereas by 2020 this figure had fallen considerably to 2.8 billion GBP. Despite this, newspapers remain important to consumers. A survey held in the United Kingdom found that the Daily Express was considered the most important newspaper to readers, whilst titles from the Sun lagged behind in this respect.

When it came to popularity and the public's opinion of selected major newspapers, commuter paper Metro was the favorite. Data found that Metro was the most popular newspaper in the UK, followed closely by The Guardian. Metro enjoys a wide readership thanks to its regular distribution in London, and remains free to readers.

In July 2021, Mail Online had an average daily audience of 4.1 million people aged 15 years or above, making this newspaper brand the highest ranking in the United Kingdom in terms of daily audience. The Sun and The Guardian ranked second and third respectively.

The leading newspaper in terms of overall reach in the United Kingdom from April 2019 to March 2020 was The Sun. The tabloid newspaper, which has been embroiled in numerous controversies over the years, had a combined reach from its print editions and website of just over 38 million from April 2019 to March 2020.

News online

The newspaper industry has had to make major readjustments to a digitalized future. Physical paper sales have been falling for years with readers being able to gain access to news on a constant and instant level online. Some brands in the UK see over 150 million unique monthly visits online. The mobile phone is now the leading way individuals consume news in the UK for almost every major brand.

The printing industry

Expenditure on newspapers in the UK based on volume has seen a decrease of about three billion British pounds during the last 10 years. Revenues from the printing of newspapers in the UK will fall to a forecasted 16.6 million U.S. dollars in 2024, down from 97 million U.S. Dollars in 2012.

The leading national daily newspaper in the United Kingdom by circulation as of April 2023 was DMGT, with an estimated circulation of over 1.86 million. Trailing far behind was Murdoch-owned News UK with a little over 900 thousand, followed by Reach with less than 700 thousand.

According to a survey held in two waves between late 2022 and early 2023, which ranked daily and weekly newspapers by reach in the United Kingdom, The Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday had the highest reach at 36 percent of all readers. Meanwhile, The Guardian/The Observer ranked second with 26 percent of respondents aged 16 or above reading the publication.

According to data gathered in the second quarter of 2024, the most popular newspapers in the United Kingdom were The Sunday Times, The Guardian, and The Sun, with 37 percent of respondents reporting that they had a positive opinion of these publications. Ranked second was Metro, followed by Daily Mail.

The leading newspaper in terms of overall reach in the United Kingdom from April 2019 to March 2020 was The Sun. The tabloid newspaper had a smartphone reach of over 31 million and a total reach of around 38 million individuals that year. The Metro had the highest reach via print, with over 8.7 million individuals per month reading the newspaper, which is distributed for free on public transportation.

News consumption in the UK Over the past few decades, the UK newspaper industry has visibly struggled due to the proliferation of social media and other digital platforms. As online media delivers regional and international news in real time and around the clock, many print publications have experienced significant readership declines. Between 2005 and 2019, expenditure on newspapers in the UK dropped from 7.2 billion to 2.7 billion British pounds, and according to a 2020 survey, newspapers were a less popular news source in the UK than the internet and television.

Online news are the latest craze The share of individuals reading or downloading online news, newspapers, and magazines in Great Britain (GB) has steadily increased in recent years. Therefore, many of the UK’s most popular newspapers have moved online to combat dwindling audiences. Today, leading news brands such as The Guardian, The Times, and tabloid publications like The Sun have a significantly higher reach online than via their print editions. Despite this ongoing digitization of the UK print industry, BBC News online remained the leading UK online news brand as of 2020.

This statistic displays the average issue readership of Metro newspaper in the United Kingdom from first half 2003 to second half 2016. In second half 2012, readership was 3.5 million readers per issue. Unlike many print newspapers in the United Kingdom, the Metro experienced readership growth during the period in consideration here, with readership up from 1.5 million readers per issue in first half of 2003.

The Times had an average monthly reach of around 15 million adults in the United Kingdom from April 2019 to March 2020. The print and digital reach of The Times and The Times on Sunday was higher among women than men, with over 7.7 million women a month reached by The Times or its website on average. Reach was also significantly higher amongst older consumers, with 11.4 million in the over 35 years age group accessing The Times each month.

Print outdoes online

The Times readership demographics reveal that more women read the newspaper than men, and that 4.1 million households with children get the daily paper every month. Of the leading national newspapers in the United Kingdom in 2019, The Times was the only one to have a higher reach in print than any online version.

Times Newspapers

The Sunday Times and The Times are both owned by Times Newspapers Ltd and based in London. The Sunday Times is published once a week and is the second most successful Sunday newspaper in the UK. The Times is published daily from Monday to Saturday.

This statistic displays the circulation of tabloid newspapers in the United Kingdom (UK) in 2019. The Sun ranked first with a circulation of roughly 1.28 million copies. It was followed by the Sun on Sunday with a circulation of approximately 1.1 million copies.

In the first half of 2023, the leading regional daily newspaper in the United Kingdom was Irish News, with a total circulation of just over 25 thousand. Despite its leading position in the ranking, the newspaper suffered an eight percent drop in circulation compared to the first half of 2022. Liverpool Echo was hit particularly hard with a year-over-year decline of 27 percent. All the top ten daily regional newspapers saw a YOY decrease, and the first six months of 2023 marked the first period in which the majority of leading regionals had a circulation of under 10 thousand.

Spotlight on Manchester Evening News

Manchester Evening News dropped out of the top 10 in the first half of 2023 after Reach chose to end free copies of the publication due to increasing newsprint costs and the paper's significant online audience rendering free print copies unnecessary. Free copies in general saw a drop in terms of circulation type, but digital audience was also down. Whilst Manchester Evening News remains the leading regional news brand by audience, its audience was down by almost 30 percent year over year. Other papers are also affected, with advertising revenue down and an increasing reliance on social networks and apps for news.

The price of news

Getting the public to pay for news in a landscape where there is a proliferation of free content is no mean feat. Indeed, the paid circulation of national newspapers in the UK fell for several large publications between 2022 and 2023, the Daily Star, Daily Record, and Daily Mirror all seeing a decline of 14 percent year-over-year. Meanwhile, the cover price of national newspapers, at least in some cases, doubled over the course of a decade. Annual subscriptions to digital news sites are also not always affordable for the average consumer, with some costing around 300 GBP per year.

From September 2020 to June 2022, 49.1 million adults read newspaper brands during the last 12 months in the United Kingdom. Of this figure, quality news brands had the most readers (36.4 million), followed closely by popular publications with 36.3 million.

This statistic displays the circulation of The Times in the United Kingdom from the first half of 2003 to the second half of 2016. As of the second half of 2015, The Times had a circulation of 378 thousand copies.

This statistic displays the daily newspaper market ranked by year-on-year growth in the United Kingdom (UK) in 2017. The Daily Telegraph had the highest decrease in circulation at -23.4 percent during the 12 months leading up to June 2018 compared to the same period of the previous year.

There is no denying that the way people consume newspapers and magazines has changed. As of 2020, more than two thirds of individuals in Great Britain were either reading or downloading online news, newspapers or magazines. This was more than three times the share of online readers as compared to 2007. The share of UK online readers was higher than the European Union (EU 28) average. As of February 2019, BBC News online had the highest share of readers in the UK, with the Guardian and Mail Online coming in as second and third choice.

How do people like their news?

According to an Ofcom study, both television and the internet were more likely to be a source of news over newspapers across all UK countries. In fact, in Northern Ireland, individuals were more likely to receive news via word of mouth rather than through a physical newspaper or printed magazine.

Social media and news

In some European countries, approximately half of news consumers used Facebook as a source of news, while in the UK, it was approximately one quarter of news consumers. In the UK, Facebook was the leading social media network as a source for news, followed by Twitter and YouTube.

This statistic displays the average issue readership trend of The Guardian newspaper in the United Kingdom from 2003 to 2016. In the period from July to December 2015, The Guardian's readership came to 840 thousand individuals per issue.

This statistic displays the average issue readership trend of The Independent newspaper in the United Kingdom from 2003 to 2015. In the period from July to December 2015, The Independent's readership was 280 thousand individuals per issue.

This statistic displays the average issue readership trend of The Sunday Telegraph newspaper in the United Kingdom from 2003 to 2016. In the period from July to December 2015, The newspaper's readership was roughly 1.12 million individuals per issue.