News International's The Times and The Sunday Times attract more business readers than their daily and weekend quality national counterparts according to the British Business Survey 2011 by Ipsos Mori.

The latest survey reveals that one in every two business purchase decision makers in the UK interacts with The Times and Sunday Times brands on a weekly basis. The Times and The Sunday Times have the highest overall share of business decision makers, reaching 53% of this audience, encompassing print and online, followed by Daily and Sunday Telegraph on 34%, FT on 30% and The Guardian/Observer trailing on 29%.

Looking at newspaper readership, The Times is read by one in four business readers with the highest daily reach of 422,000. The Daily Telegraph follows with a reach of 285,000, the Financial Times with 276,000, and The Guardian attracts 202,000 business readers.

The Sunday Times is the most widely read across the Sunday market with a reach of 669,000 - more than one in three Business readers. The Sunday Telegraph follows with 254,000, and The Observer trails with 179,000 of this executive business reach.

Meanwhile on digital platforms, one year after paid-for content was introduced; The Times and The Sunday Times have achieved an impressive 9.6% share of the business readership in the online market with 175,000, following closely behind The Guardian and Observer with 225,000, FT.com with 190,000 and Telegraph.co.uk with 187,000 readers.

Jointly financed by News International, The FT and The Economist, the report surveys 1.8 million people involved in business decisions and is undertaken to give insight into the media consumption of British business men and women.

Paul Hayes, MD, News International Commercial said: "These are very encouraging numbers for News International and for advertisers wishing to engage with the highly-valued UK business audience. The BBS surveys show that, by combining The Sunday Times and The Times brands, advertisers can connect with half of all business decision-makers weekly. It is also notable that our paid-for web and mobile products are used by nearly 10% of the business audience already. This is in touching distance of our online competitors, even those who continue to give away their content for free. Clearly, The Times and The Sunday Times are power brands among the business community."