The Sun is no longer the UK’s most widely-read daily newspaper; people are turning to independent online media
Right-wing newspapers and news websites are haemorrhaging readers as the public turns to online Independent Media – including This Site.
In print, The Sun has lost its place as the most widely-read newspaper to the Metro, with the free newspaper distributing nearly 7,500 more copies than Rupert Murdoch’s flagship in February.
Mr Murdoch may take some solace from the fact that The Sun‘s website increased its readership by 15.81 per cent, to 5,108,004 – offsetting the loss of 7.98 per cent of its printed circulation.
Harder-hit was the Daily Mail. Sales of its print version plummeted by 11 per cent in the last year, to 1,294,214 – and the online version lost 13.16 per cent of its readership, which fell to 13,516,050.
The greatest falls in circulation were recorded by the Daily and Sunday Mirrors – by 19.04 per cent and 20.18 per cent respectively – to 567,418 and 488,609. But the Mirror Group performs well online, with 9,268,774, a drop of less than a quarter of a per cent since last year.
Meanwhile the social media news sites, which have much smaller budgets but have won the trust of their readers, are surging ahead.
According to Evolve Politics, its own circulation is a million a month, while The Canary reaches three times as many people. Even This Site, which is small and humble in comparison, records around half a million hits every month.
We are all part of Independent Media UK, and you can see new stories from all three sites and more by visiting our Facebook page here.
The challenge for the new sites now is to show that we can break away from the mainstream media’s news agenda. A recent edition of ITV’s Peston programme stated that the independent social media sites are now equalling the MSM in terms of readership, but were mostly commenting on MSM stories rather than generating their own.
That is changing.
Vox Political has always gone its own way, generating unique stories alongside commentary on major events. This work is resource-intensive, though, meaning it is impossible to cover as many new stories as we would like.
Hopefully, as more readers flow to the new media and the new sites become more financially successful, that will change.
When we set the news agenda, the days of the old press barons will be over.
The Metro has climbed ahead of The Sun’s total print circulation for the first time, new ABC figures have revealed.
The free newspaper distributed 1,472,437 copies in February, down 0.25 per cent year-on-year, against The Sun’s 1,465,000 circulation, an 8 per cent drop year-on-year.
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THANK FRIK FOR THAT!!
And Murdock ruined the Times turned it into an elite trash paper which offended and turned off many. Time no longer the trusted voice and news of the establishment.
And decades of Murdock and Morgan treating thinking of British masses as plebs and morons just interested in boobs, booze, tittle tattle and football has turned majority of people away from them as well.
Metro good read
I also get CommonSpace coming through in email A Scottish independent journalism hub which is always good.
Refreshing.
and of course I follow Vox Political TomPride Canary (although getting cheesed off with it, the funny guy is not funny)
and I wonder what happened to Johnny Void of The Void?
Not seen or heard of him at all and dropped off the map and of existence over Last post on 14th February 2017, disappeared without a final word
https://johnnyvoid.wordpress.com/author/johnnyvoid/
One of his last posts was about the govt digital internet laws which would criminalise a lot of people with a threat of up to ten years in prison (Remember I have been told I can be gaoled fror ten years in prison for diarising and posting the truth of disabled accounting for them and writing true accounts of lack of law and being under criminal rogue landlords who can do anything they want)
IT BEING TRUE, FREEDOM OF SPEECH AND IN THE PUBLIC INTEREST OF HEALTH AND SAFETY IS NOT A DEFENCE says first judge
https://johnnyvoid.wordpress.com/2016/10/19/they-are-coming-for-the-internet-new-porn-and-copyright-laws-could-criminalise-millions/
Ok to post and write and blog, but some are being intimidated, silenced, legal action taken against them which they cannot afford and even disappearing
Hagar the Horrible that the only thing the scum is good for, the mail is good when your in a airport and it is free
Metro becoming the most widely-read paper means nothing to me; it’s owned, operated and edited by the Daily Mail Group which makes it a wolf in sheep’s clothing – a Tory propaganda rag masquerading as an independent paper. Once I realised who owned and edited it, that dispelled its impartial image in my mind; I lost trust in it and stopped reading it. We need an actual independent media, not a Pinocchio-paper puppeteered by the usual suspects through sleight-of-hand.
You’ll be glad to note that the Metro’s circulation has also dropped, then.
GOOD!
The same goes for the Mail. Boycott the Sun and the Mail. Note the Mail’s share price is also down.
They just don’t get it, and never will, Mike.
The more they spew their poisonous bile, the more people are put off them. We’ve seen it with their risible attempts to smear Corbyn – The more they do it, the higher Labour goes in the polls…And STILL they persist.
When it’s not Corbyn, it’s the ‘independent media’ (sans fatty fawkes)
Long may it continue. I think it was Napoleon once said: ‘Never interrupt your enemy while they’re making a mistake’.
I’d keep quiet about it from now on and ‘enjoy the show’ (so to speak) if I were you :)
Any decline in paper sales is welcome. Just take the recent artificial controversy about Jeremy Corbyn and the Salisbury poisonings. Any glance at the newspaper headlines on entering local supermarkets would give the impression that the country is virtually at war but the Labour leader is working for the enemy. No sign of real research or information. Who would know about the £800,000 donation to the Tories from Russian oligarchs if they read the trash papers, or , indeed, if they listen to the BBC?
Easy to blame Blair for the Iraq war but we shouldn’t forget how the Press kept up the pressure to bomb and invade for weeks. Blair and Brown just didn’t have the bottle to stand up for reason.
I read the daily mail online. Just so I can see what they say, especially to do with politics, but I don’t share their views. Some of the people who comment on there say the most awful things but I don’t believe all readers like me share their views.
It’s only good for spare toilet paper!!!
I call the mail the daily liar.
It used to be a good paper.
Shame