A spring 2008 Media Mark Research & Intelligence (MRI) survey, commissioned by the Newspaper National Network (NNN), reveals a 2.5% rise in readers to 80.6 million, from 78.7 million in the same period last year.

"In a challenging environment for newspaper publishers, the MRI results are welcome news," said Jason Klein, president and CEO of NNN. "Readership growth is good news for advertisers since it means more ad exposures."

Although newspaper circulation fell for the six months ending March 2008, according to the Audit Bureau of Circulations, by 3.5% for dailies and 4.5% for Sunday editions, overall readership still grew.

This can be attributed to publishers focusing on "core" subscribers, and cutting circulation of third-party copies, which went to infrequent readers. Newspaper websites may also be drawing people to the print addition, reported NNN.

These numbers continue last years trend; the NNN said that the fall 2007 numbers were also up 1.8%. These increases, however, are the first since the measure was created in 2003, when 85.3 million people read a newspaper.

Source: Editor & Publisher