Latest data reveals print newspaper readership fell 3.7 per cent in the past year while digital continued moderate growth. The latest Enhanced Media Metrics Australia (emma) monthly data for the 12-months to May 2015 say while together print and digital newspaper media reach 16.4m Australians over a four-week period, up 0.4 per cent from 16.3m in May 2014, digital readership grew by 3.2 per cent to 11.7m.
The increasing flow of readers to digital devices follows more falls in circulation for Fairfax with the Herald’s weekday copies falling 13 per cent to just 115,000, and the Sunday edition down 14 per cent. The Age is even worse, falling 18.3 per cent to 106,843 on weekdays. The Daily Telegraph fell 6.9 per cent to 273,241 copies, The Australian is down 6.7 per cent and is perilously close to going below 100,000 copies, and the Herald Sun shed 7.9 per cent but still dominates The Age. National and metro print newspapers have the highest reach, with 14.3m readers each month across print and digital platforms. Print editions reach 13.9m readers, while national and metro digital content reach 11.3m readers. While city slickers are turning more towards digital, the results show regional and community newspapers remain vital to Australian news consumers. Each month 3.7m people read regional newspapers across all platforms, with 3.25 per cent reading printed regional newspapers and 5.3m reading community newspapers. However, digital readership continues to grow, driven mainly by mobile with 453,000 additional readers and increasing by an extra 15.2 per cent year-on-year in May 2015. Desktop, laptop and tablet audiences also continue to rise, up by 3.5 per cent and 5.0 per cent respectively year-on-year. People aged 25-39 are the heaviest readers of mobile, 38 per cent of whom have consumed newspaper content on their mobile in the last four weeks, followed by under 25s (23 per cent) and 40-54s (18 per cent). Mark Hollands, CEO of The Newspaper Works, says: “Increasingly people want to access the latest news and information on the go, fuelling continued growth in mobile audiences which largely offsets the gradual decline in print readership. “However emma data clearly shows the majority of Australians still prefer their newspaper in print.” The Sydney Morning Herald retains Australia’s highest cross platform readership with a total audience of 5.1 million readers followed by The Daily Telegraph with 4.10m, and Melbourne’s the Herald Sun on 4.09 million and The Age on 3.29m. The Herald Sun (Monday-Friday) retains the lead in average issue readership with 1.29m followed by The Sunday Telegraph (1.12 million), the Saturday Herald Sun (1.09 million), the Sunday Herald Sun (1.05 million) and the Monday-Friday Daily Telegraph (990,000).
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