News brands reach 23 million daily readers including 18 million daily digital consumers
From April, all agencies will have access to both digital and print datasets
News brands continue to outperform social media in terms of audience reach, according to the last data release from PAMCo.
Every month, news brands reach eight in ten UK adults, with a total readership of 44 million, surpassing Instagram’s 42 million, Tik Tok’s 30 million and X’s 20 million,
On a weekly basis, that readership number is 37 million, outperforming Instagram (35 million), TikTok (20 million), and X (14 million).
On the daily metric, 23 million people read a news brand – just behind Instagram’s 25 million but well ahead of TikTok’s 12 million and X’s seven million.
Digital continues to dominate news readership, with 18 million people consuming news brands via digital platforms every day (32 million weekly and 40 million monthly).
Further analysis of the audience data released today shows that, across all platforms, news brand readers are interested in both hard-hitting journalism and lighter, more entertaining content.
Over three in five (61%) have a particular interest in hard news, such as articles on politics, international relations, and the environment, while over four in five (81%) enjoy softer topics like sport, recipes, and entertainment.
In an increasingly insecure and chaotic world, journalism plays a hugely important role, according to the PAMCo data: two-thirds (66%) of daily readers seek out information and analysis on topics including breaking news, politics, and the environment.
In a separate and welcome development from PAMCo, agencies that were previously limited to print readership data will now also have access to digital publisher audience data, including a deduped total brand reach figure.
This enhanced access will enable all media agencies to plan against the full scale of news brand readership.
The importance of this audience is revealed by further analysis of the data which shows that:
- 81% of news brand readers visit supermarket brands online each month
- Nine in ten visit finance and banking sites every month
- News brand readers are 17% more likely to visit price comparison websites, 12% more likely to visit culture and entertainment sites, and 10% more likely to visit fashion retailers online
- Three in five news brand readers are ABC1: their online shopping habits reflect consumers who are continuing to spend despite a tough market
The findings come from the latest PAMCo H1 2026 data release, covering the period between December 2023 and December 2025, fused with November 2025 data from Ipsos Iris.
‘UK news brand reach’ refers to the total brand reach of the following titles: Express, Daily Mail, Mirror, Daily Star, The Telegraph, The Guardian, The Observer, The Independent, i, The Sun, The Times, The Standard, and Metro.
