Circulation for Australian newspapers may be in decline across the board, but one media auditing company claims readership is up slightly for regional newspapers.

Latest Enhanced Media Metrics Australia (emma) data shows an increase in print readership for daily and weekend editions of regional titles like the Illawarra Mercury and Geelong Advertiser, while many others had little or no losses.

This is in contrast to Australian Circulation Bureau figures that show circulation falling on the same titles over similar periods.

Although ABC figures for December are not yet available, data for the three-month period ending September 2013 show daily editions of the Mercury falling by more than seven per cent and Advertiser by 3.5 per cent.

However according to emma reports, over the same period, the Mercury readership had a print readership gain of 4.1 per cent and Advertiser 2.5 per cent, while many others had modest gains or stayed flat. Most titles continued this trend in the October and November results.

The Newspaper Works chief executive Mark Hollands attributed the different results to the methods of obtaining readership versus circulation figures.

“The regional figures haven’t been counted for very long and over a short period of time there will be differences in results,” he says. “Over a longer period of time you’ll see the lines converge.”

He says the value of digital readership, which also grew over the period, should not be understated as both support print and online editions support each other and help circulation.

[Related: More newspaper stories]

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