The Answer is 7,353, what is the Question?

The question is: What is the last ever NRS readership estimate for News of the World, following its closure on 10 July 2011 after 168 years of publication?

So, over 7 million adults in Great Britain claimed to have read an average issue of this newspaper (NRS July 2010-June 2011).

The NRS hasn’t been in existence for that long, but the Survey has been measuring this newspaper for many years and has tracked changes in its readership over time. In 1977 (since which time Ipsos has been the research contractor for the NRS on a continuous basis), an estimated 13.5 million adults claimed average issue readership of the News of the World, representing a third of the adult population of 42 million.

The passing of time has seen a decline in readership claims (12.8 million in 1991, 10.3 million in 2001) but one thing that has stayed constant is the fact that is has remained the most widely read Sunday newspaper in the country.

On the front cover of its final issue on 10 July, the paper said a “sad but very proud farewell to our 7.5m loyal readers”, the question now is what will happen to those readers, will they switch to another Sunday newspaper or not?

All will be revealed in November when the NRS publishes its estimates for Quarter 3 - watch this space…