NRS: More than half of The Sun's national readership is mobile-only

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Some 53 per cent of The Sun's UK audience now reads the title only on mobile devices, according to the latest data from the National Readership Survey (NRS) published today.

The outlet now reaches 13.9 million people who access its content only on smartphone or tablet.

The Sun's digital audience has grown steadily in the last last three reports, rising from 4.8 million readers in the period between July 2015 and June 2016 to 20.5 million currently – some 78 per cent of its total readership now access its content on desktop or mobile, but not in print.

The title scrapped its metered paywall in November 2015, and revealed a redesigned homepage in the summer of 2016. It has also launched a Facebook Messenger bot and has strived to build its social media presence by recently embracing Instant Articles.

Elsewhere, more than half of total readers of The Independent (74 per cent), The Telegraph (56 per cent), the Guardian (55 per cent) and the Daily Mirror (61 per cent) access their stories only on their smartphone or tablet. However, the first three titles registered a drop in the share of mobile-only readership compared to the previous period, while the Mirror maintained the same share.

The Independent continues to be in the lead with a majority mobile-only audience, but after a period of continuous growth, the number of people who read it on their mobile devices but not on desktop has gone from 12.8 million in the previous report to 12.5 million.

The Telegraph is the latest newspaper to count a millennial readership of more than 40 per cent of its total national audience, alongside four other UK titles. With 41 per cent of its readers in the UK aged between 15 and 34, the outlet joins The Independent (49 per cent), The Daily Mirror (43 per cent), Metro (43 per cent), the Guardian (42 per cent) and The Sun (43 per cent).

The NRS PADD figures are released by the Published Audience Measurement Company (PAMCo), and the data released today represents NRS PADD readership data from the period between January 2016 and December 2016, incorporated with comScore data from November 2016.

This is the last release of full NRS data. PAMCo will continue to publish NRS data but from the first quarter of 2017 (data released on 21 June 2017) the print data will be blended from NRS and Audience Measurement for Publishers (AMP) samples, in order to integrate the AMP data, a new audience measurement service.

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