NRS

The objective of the NRS is to provide the common currency of readership research data for newspapers and magazines, using a methodology acceptable to both publishers of print media and the buyers of space. Over 275 titles are measured on the NRS, and over 36,000 respondents aged 15+ are interviewed annually.

The NRS provides estimates of the number of readers of a publication and the type of people those readers are in terms of sex, social grade, age, region and many other demographic and lifestyle characteristics. Publishers of newspapers and magazines use these estimates, along with advertisers and advertising agencies, to plan, buy and sell advertising space in print media.

The survey also measures usage of other media; including TV viewing, radio listening and cinema. The Joint Industry Committee for Internet Measurement Systems (JICIMS) establishment survey is being conducted via the NRS. With effect from July 2006 fieldwork, 14 questions are included on the NRS questionnaire relating to internet usage, frequency of use, location of use, type of device used and broadband.

The monthly interviewed sample of 3,000 adults makes the NRS one of the largest programmes of continuous readership research in Europe. It was the first in the world to introduce, in July 1992, the broad-scale use of Computer Assisted Personal Interviewing (CAPI) technology, and in 2003 became a pioneer in its full-scale adoption of Double Screen CAPI (DS-CAPI).