ThinkNewsBrands has reported that Roy Morgan’s most recent readership figures detail the 12 months to December 2023, and show that 97% (or 21.4 million) of Australians aged 14+ consume news in any given month.
As the news media landscape continues to evolve, the figures also highlight ongoing relationship with Total News Publishing. Readers across all demographics actively lean into the channel, with 68 million interactions per week.
The top news title was The Sydney Morning Herald (Unique audience of 7.4 million), followed by The Age (4.8 million), with The Australian (4.1 million) rounding out the top three.
Speaking about the results, ThinkNewsBrands CEO, Vanessa Lyons, said “the fresh readership figures show Total News Publishing has a vast, extremely engaged and economically resilient audience, right across the news media channel.”
“Our own readership analysis shows Victorians are highly engaged with our unique coverage of Victoria on both our print and digital platforms,” said Patrick Elligett, editor of The Age.
The data also shows that the combined average issue readership of Are Media’s print brands increased 4% year-on-year in December 2023, versus the total print market increase of 3.6% year-on-year, to now deliver an average of 6.04 million readers a month.
Are Media chief executive officer, Jane Huxley, said: “The fact more women across every life stage are taking the time to read our magazines is something we never take for granted. Magazines have a remarkable ability to connect with women and to influence, inform and inspire, turning connection into action through our audiences of intent. In uncertain times, magazines also offer the luxury of escape.”
National reach for state and territory mastheads
The numbers show that state and territory mastheads are reaching large readership numbers outside their local markets, due to digital accessibility.
Most state and territory mastheads have effectively doubled their reach with inter-state audiences due to large national interest in state and territory news.
This provides the opportunity for advertisers to reach people beyond their local markets, with NSW news spreading the furthest.
Vanessa Lyons said, “Across all markets, home state-based readership forms a solid foundation, but this is significantly boosted by readership across the nation.”
Change in industry composition of currency
ThinkNewsBrands has also announced that it has revised its industry currency to more accurately reflect category readership dynamics.
This change in definition will help to ensure that agencies, advertisers and the industry can assess the evolving news readership dynamics and what these mean for marketers.
The broader composition now includes additional written news titles, and will be included within the December ’23 database.
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Open in new tab Earlier in February, brand safety, editorial independence and media partnerships took centre stage for the first IMAA eLearning session. Held in partnership with ThinkNewsBrands, the Publishing & News101 module saw industry experts take the stage to provide insights and advice to more than 50 academy members.
See Also: ThinkNewsBrands communicates a new era of publishing metrics to agencies