Across print and digital, readership rose 18% to surpass 30 million daily readers for the first time, and the 6.6 million extra digital readers was a 35% increase on the previous year, Pamco found.

Monthly and weekly news readership also increased to 48 million and 45 million respectively. When regional titles were included in the analysis, 40 million people read the news either online or in print every day, rising to 49 million monthly and 48 million weekly.

Pamco said this combined figure for national and regional news organisations was 15 million more daily unique visitors than Google and 7.5 million ahead of Facebook.

Tracy De Groose, executive chair of Newsworks, which promotes the national news industry, said: “As the global pandemic took hold at the beginning of the year millions more readers turned to sources of news, analysis and information they knew they could trust.

“All the indications suggest that this more regular daily demand for high-quality journalism has continued into the second quarter of the year.”