Newspaper readership highest in a decade

Publishers of Australia’s leading newspaper mastheads can claim their audience numbers are in the best shape in more than ten years according to the latest Roy Morgan Single Source data surveyed over the 12 months to June 2012. The country’s metropolitan daily newspapers and two leading national newspapers may have had larger print audiences 10 years ago but over the last decade the number of Australians reading each masthead has increased in every case.

The mastheads now attract audiences from interstate in larger numbers with the Sydney Morning Herald reaching 774,000 people outside of NSW in an average 7 days. Similarly, for Australia’s biggest selling newspaper of the printed edition, Victoria’s Herald Sun, the total audience reading it’s content is 590,000 more than ten years ago when we consolidate print and online, with 549,000 coming from outside of Victoria.

George Pesutto, General Manager Media & Communications, Roy Morgan Research, says:

“We all accept that major media companies are now more than just a newspaper, television station or even radio station. This data demonstrates that all major metropolitan dailies and national newspapers are in great shape if the measure is the number of people each publisher engages with. And it appears the rate of migration from the printed edition is strongly influenced by the quality and evolution of their own online offering.

“Clearly there is more loyalty for the brand than perhaps many have given credit for. More importantly, these publications are attracting more people than 10 years ago. All that is needed now is a model to generate revenue from that strength.

“For some mastheads, this will be their highest readership ever recorded”.

Source: http://www.roymorgan.com/news/press-releases/2012/1768/