About the market:

While, since Mintel’s last report in 2003, total circulation of national newspapers has continued to decline, (although at a slowing rate), the market has also witnessed pockets of real, if limited, growth. Total volume sales of dailies fell by 5% between 2000 and 2004, and Mintel estimates they will have fallen by around 8% by the end of 2005. Sundays have fared better with a 2% loss to 2004 and an estimated 5% to the end of 2005.

The overall rate of decline appears to have slowed at least and publishers have been active in promoting sales in various ways. Most of these are short-term in effect, with CDs and DVDs heavily used through to 2005, but there are also significant levels of investment from a number of publishers which should better benefit the market long term by improving the product itself. DMGT, Trinity Mirror, the Telegraph Group and News International have all invested heavily in improving colour print facilities, as has the Guardian Media Group with its new printing facilities which produce the new Berliner format.

About Mintel’s research:

Mintel’s new market intelligence report provides the user with a fresh insight into a market that is working hard to combat declining circulation figures.

Compiling together the most sought-after sales, circulation and trend data and the most authoritative, independent market analysis, it offers you a vital way of fully understanding the UK market for national newspapers. It also offers you unique findings from exclusive consumer research, invaluable information that will help you to tailor your business to consumer interest in news and attitudes towards newspapers. Mintel’s research report has been designed to help you:

Identify the market’s size, driving forces and segmentation

Review cover prices and advertising revenue

Understand the opportunities offered by online newspapers

Track circulation by title and identify market shares by title and publisher

Monitor titles’ advertising trends and spend, and identify the most effective channels of distribution

Analyse consumer readership of papers and appetite for news in general

Assess consumer enthusiasm for papers and their buying patterns, helping you pin point key target markets

Discover which extreme sports are set to benefit from consumer attitudes

Reviewed detailed demographic breakdowns of newspaper readership

Build new consumer typologies and marketing messages that will reach them

Measure market forecasts and build realistic business models.

Intriguing findings include:

When asked to give their three main sources for news, respondents are twice as likely to cite a regular TV news programme and 87% of consumers cite any form of TV (including 24-hour channels) and 46% any radio, compared with 34% for a daily newspaper.

For every creature of habit (26% of consumers read the paper their family has always read), a nearly equal percentage (27%) occasionally buy different papers.