The Scottish Sun holds narrow readership lead over rival

THE print version of The Scottish Sun just leads its rival, the Daily Record, when it comes to readership in Scotland, according to latest figures.

According to the National Readership Survey – which interviews people about the newspaper and magazine readership habits – an average 822,000 Scots read The Scottish Sun between July last year and last month, with the figure for the Daily Record an average 819,000.

But there was cheer too for the Record: the Daily Record and sister title, the Sunday Mail, enjoy a combined readership of 1,803,000, versus the combined readership of 1,414,000 for The Scottish Sun and its Sunday sister.

The figures were released on Friday. The Scottish Sun’s 822,000 was down by ten per cent compared to the July 2010-July 2011 figure, while the Record’s 819,000 was a year-on-year drop of two per cent.

Readership figures are larger than sales ones because a single copy of a newspaper or magazine is often read by more than one person. The newspaper sales figures for Scotland were also issued on Friday, by the Audit Bureau of Circulation.

Next month, the NRS is, for the first time, to produce figures that combine print and online readership figures.

In the meantime, among other Scots newspaper titles, their print readership figures for July 2011-to-July 2012 are as follows:

Daily Star of Scotland 140,000, down five per cent, year-on-year

Scottish Daily Mail 222,000, down 14 per cent, year-on-year

Press and Journal 193,000, up 22 per cent

The Courier 129,000, down 25 per cent

The Herald 165,000, up five per cent

Evening Times 142,000, down four per cent

The Scotsman 109,000, down 20 per cent

Scotland on Sunday 135,000, down 22 per cent

Sunday Herald 123,000, down 27 per cent

The Sunday Post 595,000, no change