THE Herald newspaper is the daily newspaper most regularly read by Members of the Scottish Parliament, according to a poll conducted by Ipsos MORI.
The poll – which also included questions about issues such as the Scottish economy and how well known certain organisations are – asked MSPs to identify the newspapers and magazines they read ‘regularly’, ie three out of the last four issues.
And The Herald – continuing a trend stretching back to when the poll began, in 1999 – emerged the most regularly-read daily newspaper, with some 70 per cent of MSPs saying they read it regularly.
The poll was conducted at the end of last year. Compared to the previous year (2009), regular reading of second-placed The Scotsman among MSPs was up five per cent, at 61 per cent.
Comfortably topping the magazine league table was Scottish politics and current affairs magazine, Holyrood. Some 64 per cent of MSPs (up two per cent on 2009) said they read the fortnightly publication on a regular basis.
Among the Sunday newspapers, Scotland on Sunday (on 69 per cent), finished five percentage points ahead of second-placed the Sunday Herald (on 64 per cent).
A big surge across the board of visits to websites found the BBC news website had been visited at least once during the previous month by some 87 per cent of respondents to the poll, with visits to The Times’ website substantially down, from 23 per cent to eight per cent; presumably because access to content is no longer available for free.
The MSPs were surveyed between September 9 and November 5 last year. While all 129 MSPs were invited to take part in the survey, 74 actually did.
The league tables read as follows:
The Herald 70 per cent (up three per cent on 2009)
The Scotsman 61 per cent (up five per cent)
Press and Journal 24 per cent (up two per cent)
Daily Record 21 per cent (up five per cent)
Evening Times 18 per cent (up seven per cent)
The Guardian 16 per cent (up three per cent)
Metro 15 per cent (up one per cent)
The Scottish Sun 12 per cent (up two per cent)
Edinburgh Evening News 12 per cent (up two per cent)
The Times ten per cent (down four per cent)
The Daily Telegraph ten per cent (down one per cent)
The Courier nine per cent (down two per cent)
Financial Times eight per cent (up four per cent)
Scottish Daily Mail five per cent (up one per cent)
The Independent four per cent (up two per cent)
The Scottish Daily Express one per cent (down two per cent)
* * *
Scotland on Sunday 69 per cent (up one per cent on 2009)
Sunday Herald 64 per cent (up five per cent)
The Sunday Times Scotland 23 per cent (down three per cent)
Sunday Post 23 per cent (up seven per cent)
Sunday Mail 20 per cent (no change)
The Observer 18 per cent (up five per cent)
Scottish Mail on Sunday nine per cent (up five per cent)
Scottish News of the World five per cent (up four per cent)
Scottish Sunday Express three per cent (n/a)
Sunday Telegraph two per cent (down two per cent)
Independent on Sunday two per cent (n/a)
* * *
Holyrood Magazine 64 per cent (up two per cent on 2009)
Private Eye 24 per cent (up three per cent)
The Economist 16 per cent (up one per cent)
New Statesman 14 per cent (up one per cent)
New Scientist seven per cent (down two per cent)
Scottish Business Insider six per cent (down two per cent)
Radio Times five per cent (down three per cent)
Newsweek four per cent (up one per cent)
The Spectator three per cent (down three per cent)
Time Magazine two per cent (up two per cent)
Computer Weekly one per cent (up one per cent)
Investors Chronicle one per cent (up one per cent)
* * *
www.news.bbc.co.uk 87 per cent (up seven per cent on 2009)
www.theheraldscotland.com 77 per cent (up 17 per cent)
www.scotsman.com 71 per cent (up ten per cent)
www.guardian.co.uk 31 per cent (up 14 per cent)
www.telegraph.co.uk 18 per cent (up eight per cent)
www.skynews.com 13 per cent (no change)
www.pa.press.net 12 per cent (up one per cent)
www.independent.co.uk nine per cent (up nine per cent)
www.the-times.co.uk eight per cent (down 15 per cent)
www.ft.com seven per cent (down four per cent)
www.epolitix.com seven per cent (up one per cent)
www.economist.com five per cent (up three per cent)
www.cnn.com four per cent (up one per cent)
www.reuters.com/news three per cent (down one per cent)
www.newstatesman.co.uk three per cent (up two per cent)
