Reading news content is more common than supermarket visits and trusted 2.8x more than social media
The latest Roy Morgan data shows:
- Widescale readership: News Publishing connects with 22.4 million Australians aged 14+ each month.
- Strong trust: News Publishing is one of the most trusted sources of news and current affairs, with
- 2.8X more Australians saying it is their most trusted source compared to social media.
- Reading is top: More Australians read news (53%) than watch it (47%) or listen to it (28%).
- Diverse audience interests: Readers engage with diverse brands and categories, offering advertisers multiple opportunities to connect with audiences.
News Publishing delivers effective scale
The latest Roy Morgan audience consumption data underscores that news publishing is a foundation to Australian life, with 97%, or 22.4 million Australians aged 14+, engaging with news each month. To put it in perspective, more Australians read news content any given week (89%) than a routine activity like a trip to the supermarket (78%), eating a piece fruit (69%) or drinking coffee (51%) – reinforcing the vital role news plays in everyday life.
Source: Roy Morgan. Base: Australians aged 14+, weekly average over the 12 months to September 2025.
When it comes to addressable reach, which excludes people using ad blockers or ad-free subscriptions, news publishing delivers legitimate and relevant scale, reaching 97.1% of the country monthly. On a weekly basis, news publishing ranks as the third-highest medium for addressable reach, with a figure of 87.4%, just behind video (93.3%) and social (92.5%).
News is trusted 2.8x more than social
Total News Publishing is also one of the most trusted sources of news and current affairs, with 2.8x more Aussies stating news is their most trusted source compared to social media (28.2% vs 10.0%). Given the strong link between trust, ad effectiveness, and long-term brand equity, these insights highlight news as one of the most effective platforms for advertisers to reach engaged audiences with impact.
Nothing beats a good read
Once again, reading is Australia’s preferred way to consume news. More Australians engage with diverse content through reading (53%) than through listening (28%) or watching (47%). Readers are turning to news brands for deeper dives into topics and a broader range of viewpoints, showing a clear appetite for more in-depth information.
Source: Roy Morgan. Base: Australians aged 14+, weekly average over the 12 months to September 2025.
Diverse consumption patterns
The data highlights that Australians are not only reading news content but are doing so across the full gamut of news brands and topics. General News continues to dominate as the most read category, engaging 96% of the population, followed by Property (70%), Sport (56%) and Entertainment and Culture (52%). Aussies choose to engage with a variety of content, on average reading 4.2 categories any given month.
Source: Total News Publishing as measured by Roy Morgan; Roy Morgan, digital audiences use Roy Morgan iris. Base: Australians aged 14+, monthly average over the 12 months to September 2025.
This diversity of news content consumption reflects the richness of Australia’s interests, and the many avenues news publishing offers advertisers looking to connect with audiences. From national to local publications, general to special interest news categories, there is something for every Australian reader.
Source: Total News Publishing as measured by Roy Morgan; Roy Morgan, digital audiences use Roy Morgan iris. Base: Australians aged 14+, monthly average over the 12 months to September 2025.
ThinkNewsBrands CEO, Vanessa Lyons said:
“These results send a powerful message: Australians turn to news because they trust it. They read it more often than they go to the supermarket, and they trust it nearly three times more than social media. That depth of confidence speaks to the authority and integrity that news publishing brings – not just for audiences, but for brands seeking a credible environment.”
Source: Total News Publishing as measured by Roy Morgan; including Roy Morgan Single Source, Australia’s largest consumer survey representative of Australians aged 14+, and Roy Morgan iris for digital audiences. All audience data is based on monthly readership averaged over the 12 months to September 2025, unless otherwise stated. Total News Publishing is defined as Australians aged 14+ reading news in newspapers, or newspaper inserted magazines, and/or news in digital formats, including websites, apps as well as off-platform such as Facebook, Apple and Google News. Total News Publishing audience measurement is independently audited by Milton Data.
About ThinkNewsBrands
ThinkNewsBrands, the industry body for news media, is responsible for ensuring accurate and representative measurement of news audiences across both print and digital written news mediums. The organisation’s shareholders are Nine, News Corp Australia and Seven West Media’s West Australian newspapers.
Margin of Error
The margin of error to be allowed for in any estimate depends mainly on the number of interviews on which it is based. Margin of error gives indications of the likely range within which estimates would be 95% likely to fall, expressed as the number of percentage points above or below the actual estimate. Allowance for design effects (such as stratification and weighting) should be made as appropriate.
| Sample Size | Percentage Estimate |
| 40% – 60% | 25% or 75% | 10% or 90% | 5% or 95% | |
| 1,000 | ±3.0 | ±2.7 | ±1.9 | ±1.3 |
| 5,000 | ±1.4 | ±1.2 | ±0.8 | ±0.6 |
| 7,500 | ±1.1 | ±1.0 | ±0.7 | ±0.5 |
| 10,000 | ±1.0 | ±0.9 | ±0.6 | ±0.4 |
| 20,000 | ±0.7 | ±0.6 | ±0.4 | ±0.3 |
| 50,000 | ±0.4 | ±0.4 | ±0.3 | ±0.2 |
