59% of adults read one or more national daily newspapers in 1992, compared to 45% last year reveals a National Readership Survey commissioned by the House of Lord communication committee.

Only two national dailies and three Sunday newspapers went against this trend: the Daily Mail, the Times, the Sunday Telegraph, Sunday Times and Mail on Sunday.

The Daily Mail readership increased 18% and reached up 11% of he UK population.
The Times increased its readership by 59% and its reach grew 59%.

Compared to the Daily Mail and the Times, the others dailies's figures are negative. The Daily Express' readership has fallen 54% over the past 15 years, the NRS survey found, while its reach fell 57%.
For the Daily Mirror and its Scottish sister paper the Daily Record, readership fell 49% while reach was down 52%.

The Sunday newspapers circulation also declined: the overall number of people reading one or more national Sunday ewspapers fell 21% and their reach fell 26% over the period.

Bucking the downward trend, Sunday Telegraph readership has risen 6% since 1992, readership of the Sunday Times is up 2% and the Mail on Sunday grew by 4%.

But no Sunday paper managed to increase the percentage of the population it reached.

The overall number of 15- to 24-year-old readers fell by 37%, while the decline among 25- to 34-year-old readers was 40%. The number of 55- to 64-year-old readers slightly increased, by 4%.

Still, the press is a major industry in the UK and bears great influence on the population. "With 45% of the population reading one of the top 10 national newspapers on an average day it is clear that ownership of the press remains an important issue," said Lord Fowler, the chairman of the communications committee.

Source: Guardian Unlimited