The graph below shows it all. Readership for almost all Danish newspapers keeps on declining.
Jyllands Posten lost more than half of its readers in the last 14 years, Politiken lost a third.
Free dailies Metro (still no. 1), 24Timer and Urban lost readers as well. The last title lost 60% of its readers compared to 2005.
With an increase of 8% in readership compared to the 2010-survey, free daily Heute is the overall winner in the last Media-Analyse survey in Austria.
The paper had 921,000 daily readers in the 2010/2011 research and for the first time surpassed paid paper Kleine Zeitung (808,000 readers: – 5%).
Paid paper Kronen Zeitung is still the undisputed market leader in Austria (2.7 million readers) although it lost 2% of its readers.
Paid/free model Österreich is the fourth paper in the country with 714,000 readers (+5%). (click for bigger view)
In capital Vienna Heute is the largest paper with 580,000 readers against Kronen with 480,000. Österreich is third with 350,000 readers.
Blick am Abend, the second Swiss free daily, is now the second best-read Swiss paper after it surpassed its paid ‘mother-paper’ Blick. Blick am Abend had 635,000 readers on average between April 2010 and April 2011, Blick had 622,000 readers.
Best-read paper is still free daily 20 Minuten with 1.4 million readers, an increase compared to the previous period. (Click for larger version)
In the western French-speaking part, 20 Minutes is the best-read paper with 463,000 readers before paid papers Le Matin (266,000) and 24 Heures (223,000 readers). (WEMF-data via Persoenlich)
Newspaper readership in Italy does not seem to be affected by the crisis or substituted by digital media.
According to the last Audipresse research all four leading paid newspapers La Gazzetta dello Sport, La Repubblica, Corriere della Sera and La Stampa now have more readers than five years ago. Also other paid newspapers saw readership increase in the last year. Only Il Sole 24 Ore and Il Gazzettino showed a small loss.
Free dailies Leggo, City and Metro grew until 2005, lost some readers in later years but were more or less stable between 2010 and 2011 according to the last Audipress survey (January – July 2011).
Leggo has 2 million readers, City showed a small loss (from 1.9 to 1.8 million), Metro gained some readers (1.55 to 1.61 million). Dnews is still struggling with 323,000 readers (383,000 in previous year). E Polis (1.3 million readers in 2010) closed down in July 2010. (click for bigger version)
Tabloid The Sun is – by far – still the best read newspaper in the UK with 7.7 million daily readers. Five years ago The Sun dropped below the 8 million, since 2005 readership is gradually declining.
NRS data shows that also the Daily Mail sees readership decline – from 5.5 million in 22005/2006 to 4.8 million in 2010/2011 – but its position as UK’s second paper is not challenged.
Free daily Metro surpassed the Daily Mirror in 2008/2009 although the paper lost readers for the first time in the last survey.
All other papers – except the Evening Standard – lost readers during the last five years. The Standard, after going free in October 2009 doubled its readership and is bound to surpass the Daily Telegraph, currently the fifth paper in the UK. (click for bigger version)
In the May TNS Gallup survey on Danish readership, free daily 24timer for the first time surpasses paid newspaper Jyllands Posten. MetroXpress is still the best-read paper in Denmark before paid paper Politiken (click on graph for bigger version).
Toronto free daily t.o.night reported a readership of 176,000 in April 2011 against 147,000 in 2010. The increase is partly a result of the increased circulation of t.o.night that is now 102,000.
t.o.night started in 2009 with a circulation of 52,000 and increased this to 70 in 2010.
The readership study was by Verified Audit. As it only concerned t.o.night and readership data of other (free and paid) newspapers are not public, little can be said about differences between newspapers.
Contrary to the European trend, newspaper readership in Italy is growing for most major titles in the last years.
La Gazzetta Dello Sport has more readers almost every year, in the last 2011 report by Audipress (april ‘10 – march ‘11) it had more than 4 million readers; a high number for a paper with a circulation of less than 400,000 (12 readers per copy?). La Repubblica (500,000 copies) has 3.5 million readers while Corriere della Sera (540,000 copies) has 3 million readers.
Free newspapers lost readers in the last years. Leggo now has 1.9 million readers (circulation 1.050,000), City dropped to 1.8 million (850,000 copies) while Metro has 1.5 million readers (850,000 copies). The number of readers per copy (less than 2) seems more realistic for free newspapers. (click for bigger version)
DNews has 280,000 readers – with a claimed circulation of 500,000 this seems somewhat out of sync (circulation is not audited officially).
EPolis is no longer audited because the paper temporary (probably definitely) suspended printing. The paper with 19 editions and a circulation of more than 500,000 was published until July 2010. It was announced that it would resume printing in September but nothing has happened since.
Meanwhile Metro launched two new editions in Sardinia, the home market of EPolis in December 2010.
Total Italian free circulation dropped from 3.9 million halfway 2010 to less than 3.4 million now. Market share of Italian free papers is still around 40%.
Free daily Heute increased its readership with 140,000 to 849,000 in the 2010 readership survey by Media-Analyse. It is still far behind market leader Kronen Zeitung, although this paid paper lost 90,000 readers and now has a readership of 2,764,000. Kronen Zeitung reaches 39% of the Austrian population.
Heute, however, is closing the gap between paid paper Kleine Zeitung (855,000 readers) and is already the best-read paper in Vienna with 542,000 readers against 513,000 for Kronen Zeitung.
Free/paid daily Österreich is the fourth paper in Austria with 680,000 readers, a small increase compared to 2009.
More than 9.2 million Dutch (66.5%) read a newspaper on average in 2010 – slightly less than in 2009 when it was 68.3% (9.4 million). 8.2 million read a paid paper (8.3 million in 2009) while 2.7 million (19.2%) read a free daily (2.8 million and 19.3% in 2009). More than 1 million Dutch (7.6%) only read a free daily.
Free dailies lost some readers in the last year, Metro is the second Dutch paper with 1.7 million readers (12.3%), Spits in third with 1.6 million (11.4%) while De Pers is sixth with 717,000 readers (5.2%).
Paid daily De Telegraaf was the only paper that gained readers when 2010 is compared to 2009.