The number of people reading Scottish daily or Sunday newspapers each month has grown by over two per cent to 3.3 million in 2016, new figures have revealed.
According to statistics drawn from the latest National Readership Survey report, when Scottish local news brands are included, the number of people reading online or in print rises to some 4.17 million people, or 93% of the population,
This is a slight increase on the 92 per cent recorded in June this year and higher than the UK figure of 91.5 per cent.
Scotland’s daily newspapers collectively attract 1.8million readers per issue which is a reach of 39 per cent of the population compared to 32 per cent for the UK as a whole. Some 57 per cent of the population read a daily newspaper at least once a week.
Although the average issue readership figure has fallen by 6.5 per cent since the same period last year, the has actually been a small increase in the number of 15-34 year-old readers.
The average issue readership on a Sunday is 1.4 million people, or 31 per cent of the population, and although this is down four per cent from last year, this represents a dramatic slowing from the 15 per cent drop experienced in 2014-15.
Scottish Newspaper Society director John McLellan said: “Once again this is a huge vote of confidence in the Scottish newspaper industry, demonstrating that Scots are keeping faith with their tried and trusted news brand to bring them the news, views and information they need to make informed decisions.
“The growth in average monthly daily and Sunday readership is particularly encouraging and the fact that we are seeing some growth in the youngest age group gives us good cause to be optimistic about the future.”
The full National Readership Survey results for UK news brands and magazines can be found here
The analysis on behalf of the SNS was conducted by Judith Weir.