Newspaper sales quite surprised me

[Linford]

Now only going by a straw poll here, but back in my newsagents this morning and chatting to the owner (who is a DM reader), and this is how the sales are going on a daily basis

2 = Guardian
20 = Daily Mail
60 = Gloucestershire Echo.

I didn't get the other numbers, but the local paper outsells all the nationals by a good margin.

I have to be honest, I was expecting there to be far more Guardian sales, but then it is easy for the perspective to be skewed here given the vocal minority of Guardian reading posters.

Anyway I learned something this morning..and wonder what the current readership of the badly selling ones will be reading when they fold (excuse the pun)

 

[Moodyman]

When I was a paper boy, I delivered more local papers than national ones.

I think most folk either 1) don't care about national news as it's not in their vicinity or 2) national news is more readily available via tv.

 

[Crackle]

You managed to step over the bike and get in then.

 

[Globalti]

Local rags are generally better on paper than on the web, I find. There's all kinds of detail that is too unimportant to put on the web and would be hard to find but still interests a lot of people.

 

[Flying_Monkey]

http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/uk-newspapers-ranked-total-readership-print-and-online

Funnily enough, the view from Linford's shop isn't the whole picture.

 

[Linford]

You managed to step over the bike and get in then.

That was noteworthy because it rarely happens.

 

[Linford]

Perhaps the Gruniad readers are truly internet savvy and access it online whereas the Gloucestershire Echo Echo customers can't afford a computer tablet thingy.

So that makes the 2 Guardian readers who use the shop a magnitude richer than the 60 Echo readers...naa, I don't buy into that

 

[Linford]

http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/uk-newspapers-ranked-total-readership-print-and-online

Funnily enough, the view from Linford's shop isn't the whole picture.

It is in the Hesters Way ward which is fairly deprived by national statistics so perhaps you are right...poor people don't read the Guardian which makes its POV fairly far from the 'working classes'
Heck, come to think of it, the shop owner who escaped from Vietnam in the 70's on a boat (as well as my dad who came from India) and they are both DM readers so the Guardian clearly doesn't appeal to them either.

 

[MarkF]

My youngest son is a paper boy, I do his Sat round with him, it stops me drinking too much on a Friday night.

The Daily Mail is by far the most popular paper, I'd guess at ratio of 4 DM's to any other title. He doesn't deliver one Guardian. Our local paper is terrible, sales have collapsed since I was a paper boy, the news, such as it is, seems to be syndicated, police fed or rung in by readers, I am not sure if they have any "real" reporters.

 

[Fnaar]

From being someone who used to buy 2 newspapaers a day, I now don't buy any, haven't dome for years (the very occasional Saturday one).
The weekend ones are massive... way too much to think of getting through, in an otherwise busy life; some really good quality writing, but a lot of padding, food, fashion, middle class angst and faff. I just read them (free) online while travelling to and fro. Newspapers can't last in their current form, and rituals we've become used to (what the papers say) will no doubt have to change too, as the papers-made-from-paper become increasingly anachronistic.

 

[Linford]

What the shop owner said was that National news is of no interest for most people...I can see her point, and she only read it for the non political stuff..meaningthat most of its contens were general interest, and non political.

 

[ASC1951]

....poor people don't read the Guardian which makes its POV fairly far from the 'working classes'...

If you want to see who the Guardian's core readership are, just look at the adverts. And it's not the struggling families that their hacks so vigorously claim to represent.

 

[pplpilot]

Local rags are like local radio stations. Piss poor.

 

[Linford]

Local rags are like local radio stations. **** poor.

that is all well and done, but what if the nationals are not actually printing anything which is actually relevant in the real world for the average joe ?

The average guardian reader is obviously not the average joe which puts them very much in the minority...and fairly irrelevant in the grand scheme when we talk numbers.

The Sun = titilation and gossip
DM = general interest blue peter style
Local papers = truly relevant to most on a daily basis

 

[michaelcycle]

It would be interesting to get a gauge of the the average age of the buyers.

I suspect older readers would actually buy a paper in a shop and they are more likely to be engaged in local community issues than young 'uns.