ThinkNewsBrands and Roy Morgan Total News readership figures for the 12 months ending December 31, 2022 show 20.6 million Australians over the age of 14 engage with news every month.
The readership figures, produced by Roy Morgan for ThinkNewsBrands, show that Total News reaches 97% of the population over the age of 14. Total News represents all news brands across print and digital as well as standalone news websites.
ThinkNewsBrands reports Australia’s trusted masthead brands continue to command large audiences, as demonstrated by the below table.
ThinkNewsBrands general manager Vanessa Lyons said: “The latest Total News readership figures demonstrate how much of a deeply ingrained daily habit news is in the lives of Australians; news has a consistent and enduring appeal for most of the population. The figures underscore the importance of news, particularly during challenging economic times when trustworthy and reliable information is crucial.”
The latest readership data confirms Total News continues to engage audiences across all age groups including the hard-to-reach under-40s.
Major publishers report: News Corp Australia
In reporting its results for the second quarter of FY 2023, News Corp revealed:
Global news media revenues in the quarter decreased $59 million, or 9%, as compared to the prior year, driven by a $65 million, or 10%, negative impact from foreign currency fluctuations and lower advertising revenues in constant currency, partially offset by higher circulation and subscription revenues in constant currency.
Closing digital subscribers at News Corp Australia as of December 31, 2022 were 1,011,000 (924,000 for news mastheads), compared to 909,000 (861,000 for news mastheads) in the prior year (Source: News Corp Internal data).
News Corp Australia’s most-read brand remains The Australian with 4.3m, down from 5.3m 12 months ago. The national broadsheet now shares its ranking with the Herald Sun, also on 4.3m, down from 4.7m 12 months ago.
See also: News Corp dips – Company confirms 1250 positions to go as earnings decrease
Major Publishers report: Nine Publishing
The publishing division of Nine Entertainment reported last week that notwithstanding a relatively quiet news cycle, strong readership across each of The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and The Australian Financial Review continued to translate to economic audiences, with mid-single digit (%) growth in digital subscriptions over the past 12 months.
Total subscribers held firm at ~450k while registered users grew to more than 1.1m. While print subscription and retail sale revenue slipped slightly across the half, this was more than offset by digital subscription and licensing revenue growth.
Digital advertising revenue declined by 8% across the half, reflecting softness in programmatic advertising late in the half. Print advertising, however, grew by 9%, with Travel bouncing back strongly and Luxury continuing to grow.
Nine’s The Sydney Morning Herald topped the 2022 readership rankings with 8.1m readers. This is down from the figure of 8.6m 12 months ago.
See also: Nine Entertainment reports revenue lift, profit drop
Readership source: Roy Morgan Research, All People 14+. All audience data is based on the last 4 weeks averaged over the 12 months to December 2022.
Total News is defined as Australians aged 14+ reading news in print and/or news in digital. Digital news includes Australian publishers’ news websites/apps, Apple news and non-Australian-owned news. It also includes ABC news and Google news.