THE HULTON READERSHIP SURVEY, with its well-tended acreage of figures,
must be a magic garden to the statistically-minded. Even to me it offers much interest and information, especially when I compare this year's crop with those of the last two years. The significance of some figures is obvious enough : for example, the steady decline in the readership of Reynolds News (1.55 million in 1953, 1.39 million in 1954, 1.11 million in 1955) must reflect the declining interest in Left-wing politics. Whether the fairly heavy decline in the readership of The Taller over the same period is equally significant (and if so, significant of what?) is another question. It is interesting to see that the Sunday Times and the Observer are now running neck and neck. each with a readership of 1.52 million. Other figures are merely puzzling. The general impression about the readership of newspapers is probably that it goes steadily up or down over a period of four or five years. But the readership of the Evening Standard over the past three years has been 1.65 million, 1.9 million and 1.55 million. Why? Why, too, should the Farmers' Weekly and Homes and Gardens have declined sharply in 1954 and risen as sharply again in 1955? No doubt there are many stories of editorial genius or adver- tising zeal lying behind these figures, but the Hulton Survey does not reveal them.
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