KUALA LUMPUR: The New Straits Times (NST) was the only English daily publication that recorded an increase in readership from July 2016 to June this year compared to the same period last year.
According to the Nielsen Consumer and Media View July 2016-June 2017 report, NST recorded a 10 per cent growth in readership to 200,000 from 182,000 during the period.
The increase was contributed to its revamp early this year and several campaigns carried out throughout the period, including MyRumah Property Showcase, RHB NST National SIR Challenge 2016, NST Thematic Campaign and NST C-Cycle Challenge.
The NST’s Sunday title, New Sunday Times recorded a slight decrease by two per cent to 154,000 in readership.
The report also recorded that an increase by 23 and 20 per cent of readers with income above RM4,000 for NST and New Sunday Times respectively.
Readership of NST in the rural areas improved by 27 per cent while in Kuala Lumpur and Petaling Jaya has increased by 19 per cent.
As for New Sunday Times, the readership in Ipoh has increased by 88 per cent while Kuala Lumpur and Petaling Jaya by 18 per cent.
Overall, the readership on dailies saw a decline by 21 per cent to 7.4 million for the period this year.
The report also stated that the decrease of English dailies stood at 24 per cent while English Sunday titles by 34 per cent.
As for Malay language dailies, it recorded a decrease by 20 per cent and 15 per cent for its Sunday titles.
Meanwhile, NST’s sister papers, BH and BH Ahad saw a decrease by 21 and 22 per cent respectively while Harian Metro and Metro Ahad dropped by 18 and 12 per cent respectively.
Kosmo Ahad was the only Sunday title that recorded an improved in readership by three per cent.