“A newspaper is a device for making the ignorant more
ignorant and the crazy crazier,” said the prolific journalist H. L.
Mencken. While various people hold different opinions, it’s true that
newspapers are the means of a daily dose of worldwide happenings and
events that people can’t seem to live without. Here are the most read
newspapers in the world, not just in terms of circulation but also based
on their website’s unique visitors per month, as listed by Sufian Ullah
for Click Top 10.
Daily Mail:
Daily Mail takes the first place on the list. It is a British daily
middle-market tabloid newspaper owned by the Daily Mail and General
Trust and it is the most read newspaper in the world. It was first
published in 1896. It is the United Kingdom's second biggest-selling
daily newspaper after The Sun. The daily paper also has Scottish and
Irish editions that were launched in 1947 and 2006 respectively. The
newspaper had an average daily circulation of 19, 91, 275 copies in
April 2012. The website has over 100 million unique visitors per month.
From the start, the newspaper was targeted at women, and was the first
to provide features especially for women, and is the only British
newspaper with 53 percent female readership.
The New York Times:
The New York Times is the second most read newspaper in the world. The
American daily newspaper was founded and continuously published in New
York City since September 18, 1851. The newspaper’s website is America's
most popular news site, receiving more than 30 million unique visitors
per month. The paper's print version continues to be the largest local
metropolitan newspaper in the U.S. It is owned by The New York Times
Company that also publishes 18 other newspapers. The paper's motto is
"All the News That's Fit to Print", while its website has adapted it to
"All the News That's Fit to Click". NYT has also been the recipient of
112 Pulitzer Prizes.
The Guardian:
The Guardian is next on the list. Founded in 1821 by John Edward Taylor
in Manchester, this British national daily newspaper has grown from a
19th-century local paper to a national paper associated with a complex
organizational structure and international multimedia and web presence.
In December last year The Guardian in paper form had an average daily
circulation of 2, 04,222. The newspaper's online version is the second
most popular British newspaper website. The paper is also powerful in
the design and publishing arena.
Recent notable news include the newspaper breaking the news of the
secret collection of Verizon telephone records held by Barack Obama's
administration and subsequently revealed the existence of the PRISM
surveillance program after it was leaked to the paper by NSA
whistleblower Edward Snowden.
People's Daily:
The People's Daily is the fourth most read newspaper in the world. It
is a daily newspaper in the People's Republic of China. It is controlled
by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC). The
paper is published globally with a circulation of 3 to 4 million. Its
main edition is in Chinese language, but it also has editions in
English, Japanese, French, Spanish, Russian, Arabic and Korean.
Washington Post:
The Washington Post is an American daily newspaper and ranks fifth on
the list. It is the most extensively circulated newspaper published in
Washington, D.C. Founded in 1877 the paper is the oldest in existence in
the area. Located in the capital city of the U.S., the newspaper has a
particular emphasis on national politics. It has won 47 Pulitzer Prizes
and has also received 18 Nieman Fellowships and 368 White House News
Photographers Association awards. The newspaper is owned by The
Washington Post Company, an education and media firm. This leading
newspaper was also the one who had its reporters Bob Woodward and Carl
Bernstein expose the Watergate scandal.
The Sun:
The Sun takes the sixth place on the list. It is a daily tabloid
newspaper published in the UK and Ireland by the News Group Newspapers
division of News UK. In print circulation the newspaper has the
ninth-largest circulation of any newspaper in the world and the largest
circulation of any daily newspaper in the UK. It had an average daily
circulation of 24, 09,811 copies in January 2013.
The average age of a Sun reader is 45 and around 45 percent of readers
are women. This leading newspaper has been involved in a number of
controversies, including its coverage of the 1989 Hillsborough football
stadium disaster, false allegations against Elton John, etc. The Sun
also has an iPad edition that costs £4.99 for subscription for a month.
The Wall Street Journal:
The Wall Street Journal is the seventh most read newspaper in the
world. It is an American English-language international daily newspaper
with a special emphasis on business and economic news. Published six
days a week in New York City by Dow Jones & Company, the paper also
has Asian and European editions. It is the largest newspaper in the
U.S., by circulation. As per the Alliance for Audited Media, the Journal
has a circulation of about 2.4 million copies (including nearly 900,000
digital subscriptions), as of March 2013. The newspaper version has won
the Pulitzer Prize 35 times.
Asahi Shimbun:
The Asahi Shimbun is one of the five national newspapers in Japan and
it takes the eighth place on the list of most read newspapers. The
newspaper had an association with the International Herald Tribune,
which is owned by The New York Times. In 2010, the partnership was
dissolved due to unprofitability and the Asahi Shimbun currently
operates the Asia & Japan Watch online portal for English readers.
The Times of India:
Ninth on the list is The Times of India, the Indian English-language
daily newspaper. As per Audit Bureau of Circulations, TOI has the
largest circulation among all English-language newspapers in the world,
across all formats (broadsheet, tabloid, compact, Berliner and online).
While as per the Indian Readership Survey 2012, the TOI is the most
widely read English newspaper in India with a readership of 76.43 lakhs
(7.643 million), making it the top English daily in India by readership.
The newspaper is owned and published by Bennett, Coleman & Co.
Ltd. which is owned by the Sahu Jain family.
Daily Telegraph:
Rounding off the ten the place on the list is The Daily Telegraph, a
daily morning broadsheet newspaper, published in London and distributed
throughout the UK and internationally. The newspaper was founded in 1855
by Arthur B. Sleigh as The Daily Telegraph and Courier, and since 2004
has been owned by David and Frederick Barclay. The newspaper had an
average daily circulation of 5, 52,065 earlier this year. It is the
sister paper of The Sunday Telegraph and is run separately with a
different editorial staff, but the two titles share a website.