Over 15.7 million Australians read newspapers in print or online

Roy Morgan today releases the latest readership results for Australian newspapers for the 12 months to December 2018.

Over 15.7 million, or 76.9%, of Australians aged 14+ now read or access newspapers in an average 7 day period via print or online (website or app) platforms, a fall of 1.3 per cent from a year ago.

Although most leading newspapers had a decline in total cross-platform readership there were several bright spots. The Herald Sun grew its digital audience to over 2 million and the Australian Financial Review also increased its digital audience over the last year, up by 1.2 per cent to 1,169,000.

In addition Western Australia’s leading newspaper the West Australian grew its print readership 7.3 per cent to nearly 750,000 and The Saturday  Paper had strong growth across print readership, digital audience and total cross-platform audience.
These are the latest findings from the Roy Morgan Single Source survey of 50,853 Australians aged 14+ in the 12 months to December 2018.

For full details of all mastheads surveyed click here.

Australia’s most widely read masthead continues to be the Sydney Morning Herald – with a cross-platform audience of 4,135,000, down 2.8 per cent from a year ago. Despite this decrease in audience the SMH increased its lead over Sydney rival the Daily Telegraph which now has a cross-platform audience of 2,989,000, down 13.3 per cent in a year.

Melbourne daily the Herald Sun with a cross-platform audience of 2,984,000 (down 0.6 per cent) has out-pointed local rival The Age with a cross-platform audience of 2,816,000 (down 8 per cent).

Top State-wide & National Mastheads by Total 7 Day Cross-Platform Audience (Print & Online)

Publication	Print		Digital (web or app)		Total Cross-Platform Audience* (print, web or app)
	Dec 2017	Dec 2018	Dec 2017	Dec 2018	Dec 2017	Dec 2018	% Change
	‘000s	‘000s	‘000s	‘000s	‘000s	‘000s	%
Sydney Morning Herald (SMH)	1,056	983	3,780	3,667	4,255	4,135	-2.8%
Daily Telegraph	1,334	1,285	2512	2,091	3,446	2,989	-13.3%
Herald Sun	1,542	1,342	1,936	2,032	3,002	2,984	-0.6%
The Age	945	817	2,603	2,458	3,061	2,816	-8.0%
The Australian	888	862	1,899	1,866	2,550	2,480	-2.8%
Courier-Mail	971	894	1,312	1,095	2,022	1,779	-12.0%
Australian Financial Review (AFR)	386	364	1,155	1,169	1,453	1,439	-1.0%
West Australian	697	748	598	557	1,117	1,060	-5.1%

*Total cross-platform audience comprises print which is net readership in an average 7 days and digital which is net website visitation and app usage in an average 7 days.
Total Cross-Platform Audience results available to view here.

Print Newspapers read by over a third of Australians (7 million)

Overall nearly 7 million Australians read the listed print newspapers, including almost 5 million who read weekday issues, over 4.1 million who read Saturday editions and more than 3.7 million who read Sunday titles. Although print readership has declined year-on-year, the latest figures show more than 1-in-3 Australians (34.1 per cent) are reading print newspapers. In today’s digitally-focused world print newspapers continue to be an important advertising medium to reach both mass and niche audiences.

Weekend Newspaper Readership down, Sunday Telegraph is most read

Australia’s best read weekend newspaper is again Sydney’s Sunday Telegraph with an average issue print readership of 826,000 – down 6 per cent over the past year – ahead of southern stablemate Melbourne’s Sunday Herald Sun which has a print readership of 737,000 (down 12.7 per cent).

Other major titles to decline included the Saturday Herald Sun down 15 per cent to a readership of 667,000, The Weekend Australian down 6.2 per cent to a readership of 590,000, the Saturday Sydney Morning Herald down 5.2 per cent to 588,000 readers and the Sunday Mail in Queensland down 9.4 per cent to a readership of 586,000.

Defying the trend of many of its peers was The Saturday Daily Telegraph in Sydney which increased its readership by 1 per cent to 529,000 and was Australia’s seventh most widely read weekend newspaper, up from eighth in the year to September 2018.

Another strong performer over the past year was Schwartz Media’s The Saturday Paper which increased its readership by 3.2 per cent to 119,000.

Top Weekend Newspapers – Ranked by Print Readership*

Publication	Dec 2017	Dec 2018	% Change
	‘000s	‘000s	%
Sunday Telegraph	879	826	-6.0%
Sunday Herald Sun	844	737	-12.7%
Saturday Herald Sun	785	667	-15.0%
The Weekend Australian	648	590	-6.2%
Saturday SMH	654	588	-5.2%
The Sunday Mail (Qld)	647	586	-9.4%
Saturday Daily Telegraph	524	529	1.0%

*Print readership is average issue readership.

Full Newspaper Readership Results available to view here.

Newspaper Inserted Magazines: Domain readership hits 800,000

Real estate focused magazine Domain is the second most widely read newspaper inserted magazine in Australia with a readership of 800,000 in the year to December 2018. However, although down 12.8 per cent, Good Weekend remains Australia's most widely read newspaper inserted magazine with print readership of 1,045,000.

Stellar magazine is the third most widely read newspaper inserted magazine with a readership of 715,000 in the year to December 2018, down 4.5 per cent on a year ago, and Sunday Life is the fourth most widely read newspaper inserted magazine with a readership of 679,000, down 3.3 per cent.

Several newspaper inserted magazines performed strongly over the past year and lifted their readership including the Financial Review Magazine which increased its readership 0.5 per cent to 408,000, stablemate Boss magazine now with a readership of 153,000 (up 13.3 per cent) and the Gold Coast Eye magazine which increased its readership by 21.4 per cent to 34,000.