Newspaper readership strong despite jobless rise

SOARING unemployment and population decline have been blamed for a slight drop in newspaper readership over the past year.

The latest Joint National Readership Survey (JNRS) figures, for the period July 2009 to June 2010, released yesterday, showed most daily newspapers experienced a drop in readership. During that period unemployment rose by 6.2% to 444,000.

Additionally, the proportion of adults not working (ie schoolgoers over the age of 15, college students, the retired and the unemployed) is estimated to be 47% compared with 40% at the end of 2008.