Morgan Readership: 15.7 million read newspapers in print or online

• Over 15.7 million, or 76.9%, of Australians aged 14+ now read or access newspapers in an average seven day period via print or online

Roy Morgan has released its 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 seven day period via print or online (website or app) platforms, a fall of 1.3% 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% to 1,169,000.

In addition Western Australia’s leading newspaper the West Australian grew its print readership 7.3% 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.

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% 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% in a year.

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

To Top