New Roy Morgan Cross-Platform Audience results show continued growth for Australia’s leading mastheads

Roy Morgan today releases the latest cross-platform audience results for Australian newspapers and magazines for the period January – September 2020 showing growth for Australia’s leading newspaper mastheads and across the newspaper sector more broadly.

In the 9 months to September this year an estimated 19.4 million (92%) Australians aged 14+ read or accessed newspapers or newspaper content in some way – print editions, online via website, app or news platforms including (metropolitan, local and regional titles) in an average four weeks. This represents significant growth of 4% points from the 6 months to June when the total cross-platform audience for newspapers was 18.5 million (88%).

The total cross-platform audiences for newspaper mastheads in the 9 months to September includes an estimated 16.4 million (78%) reading or accessing metropolitan titles. In addition some 15.3 million (73%) Australians aged 14+ read or accessed a magazine or magazine content.

The enhanced 4 week cross-platform audience data measures both Newspaper and Magazine masthead reach across print and digital content by masthead for each Publisher.

These latest findings from Roy Morgan Single Source are available to Publishers, Media Agencies and Brand Advertisers on an on-going basis.

Sydney Morning Herald is Australia’s top masthead – read by over 8.3 million Australians

This enhanced 4 week cross-platform audience data now shows the standout performers for Newspapers are Nine Entertainment owned Sydney Morning Herald with a cross-platform audience of over 8.3 million and its Melbourne stablemate The Age with a cross-platform audience of over 5.9 million Australians in an average 4 week period in the nine months to September.

News Corp’s Daily Telegraph is in third place with a cross-platform audience of 4.9 million in front of Melbourne counterpart the Herald Sun and national broadsheet The Australian which both have large cross-platform audiences of around 4.5 million Australians.

A look at the discrete quarterly figures for Australia’s leading mastheads shows strong growth for both of the leading Melbourne titles during that city’s second lockdown. Both the Herald Sun and The Age increased their enhanced 4-week cross-platform audiences by more than 400,000 during the quarter.

Other mastheads to experience consecutive quarters of growth during both the September quarter and earlier June quarter included Australia’s leading masthead the Sydney Morning Herald, national broadsheet The Australian, and the Perth-headquartered West Australian and Sunday Times.

These new ‘digital first’ Enhanced Cross-Platform Audience results are drawn from Roy Morgan Single Source comprising personal interviews with a representative sample of 44,653 Australians aged 14+ in their own homes and machine based data collected in the nine months to September 2020.

Are Media’s ‘Now to Love’ online magazine destination is read by over 2.5 million Australians

The results for the nine months to September 2020 for Magazine Publishers are equally impressive with the enhanced 4 week cross-platform audience data showing the Are Media owned ‘Now to Love’ website attracts an audience of 2.5 million Australians in an average 4 week period. Are Media’s ‘Now to Love’ website allows magazine publishers to reach their audience in new ways with innovative online offerings.

Many of Are Media’s magazine brands (including Australian Women’s Weekly, Woman’s Day, TV Week and Take 5) have consolidated their online presence in the ‘Now to Love’ website which is adding incremental reach to already strong print based publications including Woman’s Day, estimated to reach almost 1.4 million readers in an average 4 week period, and stablemate Australian Women’s Weekly with an estimated 4 week print reach approaching 1.1 million readers.

There are several other magazines with large cross-platform audiences including News Corp’s Taste.com.au Magazine with a total audience of over 3.1 million, Are Media’s New Idea with over 2.3 million and Better Home & Gardens with over 1.9 million readers in an average 4 weeks in the nine months to September 2020.

Michele Levine, CEO Roy Morgan says the 4 week cross-platform audience data released today shows newspapers and magazines are reaching huge audiences of millions of Australians that aren’t attached to traditional media channels:

“Roy Morgan’s ‘digital first’ view of the media landscape highlights that millions of Australians are accessing Newspaper and Magazine mastheads via their online channels.

“The new 4 week cross-platform audience results shows millions of Australians are accessing their trusted media brands through digital channels. An estimated 19.4 million Australians aged 14+ (92%) read or accessed newspapers including metropolitan, regional and community titles in an average four weeks in the nine months to September 2020.

“The metropolitan newspapers have a combined audience of 16.4 million Australians aged 14+ (78%) and Australia’s most widely read masthead the Sydney Morning Herald is read by over 8.3 million in an average four weeks – equal to nearly 40% of Australia’s population. 

“The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic has proved to be a boon for Australia’s leading newspaper mastheads with many substantially increasing their enhanced cross-platform audiences during the last few months as Australians turn to trusted news sources to keep up-to-date with the latest developments in a fast-changing environment.

“The biggest winners during the September quarter were the Melbourne based mastheads The Age and Herald Sun which both experienced increases in their enhanced cross-platform audiences of over 400,000 from the June quarter. The State of Victoria entered a second lockdown early in July and remained under strict lockdown conditions throughout the remainder of the September quarter.

“There were other strong performances as well with the Sydney Morning Herald, The Australian and Perth-based titles the West Australian and Sunday Times both experiencing consecutive quarters of enhanced cross-platform audience growth.

“In the magazine realm over 2.5 million Australians now visit the ‘Now to Love’ online ‘destination’ which provides a significant boost for popular Are Media titles such as Woman’s Day, Australian Women’s Weekly and the Take 5 weekly and monthly titles.

“The comprehensive 4 week cross-platform audience results create a range of new opportunities for participating Publishers and of course Brand Advertisers. Advertisers and their Media Agencies can now use these latest metrics to better plan campaigns and profile these larger audiences.”

4 Week Newspaper Cross-Platform Audience (January to September 2020)

Cross-Platform Audience is the number of Australians who have read or accessed individual newspaper content via print, web, app or Apple New (and includes Monday – Friday and the weekend editions on Saturday and Sunday).

In line with traditional digital measures all results are 4 week estimates rather than print currency ‘average issue readership’ (AIR). The print currency ‘AIR’ readership estimates for newspapers are available to view in detail on the Roy Morgan website here.

Roy Morgan CEO Michele Levine says the unprecedented challenges during 2020 such as COVID-19, and before that the devastating bushfires, have given Australia’s leading news providers including News Corp and the ABC a huge boost in audiences:

“The COVID-19 pandemic has shown how important reliable sources of news are for consumers needing to keep up to date with the latest Government directives as Australia deals with the virus.

“Australians have turned to news providers in unprecedented numbers during the pandemic with News Corp a leading choice for millions of Australians. In the nine months to September 2020 News Corp has five mastheads with 4 week cross-platform audiences in an average four weeks of well over 1.5 million for each.

“The leading News Corp mastheads are the Capital City based Daily Telegraph, Herald Sun, Courier-Mail and Adelaide Advertiser and the national broadsheet The Australian. which during the nine months to September 2020 was read by well over 4.5 million in an average four weeks.

“Digital news channels reach huge audiences of Australians led by News Corp’s leading platform news.com.au which Roy Morgan estimates was visited by over 11 million Australians during the nine months to September 2020 just ahead of ABC News visited by over 10.2 million.”

4 Week Magazine Cross-Platform Audience (January to September 2020)

Cross-Platform Audience is the number of Australians who have read or accessed magazine content via print, web, app or Apple News.

In line with traditional digital measures all results are 4 week estimates rather than print currency ‘average issue readership’ (AIR). The print currency ‘AIR’ readership estimates for magazines are available to view in detail on the Roy Morgan website here.

Note: 4 Week audience is 4 week readership for 7 day titles, Average Issue Readership is used for monthly &  quarterly titles.

For the record – Roy Morgan Print Readership Results

Roy Morgan provides the industry currency in readership figures and is the most influential survey on newspaper and magazine readership in Australia.

The readership estimates below are ‘average issue readership’ (AIR) over a 12 month period, and represent the number, or %, of Australians who read or look into an average issue of the particular publication.

This provides an estimate of the ‘reach’ an advertiser can expect to achieve with advertising placed in the publication.

These print readership estimates do not include the additional Australians who read the publications in their digital form online, via web, mobile or app.

The total reach – ‘cross-platform’ reach - is greater than the ‘average issue reach’ of a publication as it includes additional readers and covers a 4 week period, rather than an average issue.

Are Media has Australia’s two most widely read paid magazines – Better Homes & Gardens and Australian Women’s Weekly

Better Homes & Gardens is Australia’s most widely read paid magazine with an average issue print readership of 1,402,000 in the year to September 2020 and is followed by Australian Women’s Weekly with an average issue print readership of 1,151,000. These two Are Media magazines are clearly the most widely read paid magazines in Australia.

In addition National Geographic has retained an impressive average issue print readership of 805,000 followed by Are Media’s Woman’s Day on 723,000 and New Idea on 625,000 while That’s Life Mega Monthly has performed strongly and increased average issue print readership by 1.7 per cent to 410,000.

Other magazines to perform strongly and increase their average issue print readership include 4x4 Australia (+26.7 per cent to 152,000), Vogue Living (+18.4 per cent to 148,000), Inside Sport (+0.9 per cent to 113,000) and Australian Golf Digest (+21.3 per cent to 57,000).

Coles Magazine & Fresh most widely read and Bunnings Magazine read by almost 1.3m

Australia's two most widely read free magazines are again Coles Magazine with an average issue print readership in the year to September 2020 of 4,367,000 and Fresh with a readership of 3,871,000.

Bunnings Magazine is the third most widely read free magazine. It has an average issue print readership in the year to September 2020 of 1,293,000, an impressive increase of 18 per cent on a year ago and making the hardware retailer’s magazine one of only five with an average issue print readership of more than 1 million Australians.

The five most read categories of magazines by average issue print readership

• Food & Entertainment (6,173,000 Australians, 29.4% of the population);
  
• General Interest (3,559,000 Australians, 16.9% of the population);
  
• Home & Garden (3,176,000 Australians, 15.1% of the population);
  
• Mass Women’s (2,755,000 Australians, 13.1% of the population);
  
• Business, Financial & Airline (998,000 Australians, 4.7% of the population).

Roy Morgan CEO Michele Levine says the pandemic has presented unprecedented challenges to traditional publishers during 2020 but millions of Australians are still reading print magazines and Australia’s success in suppressing the virus presents opportunities for the year ahead:

“During the COVID-19 related lockdowns around Australia digital channels such as Are Media’s ‘Now to Love’ online destination have become more important than ever as a place consumers can go to find their favourite content. The ‘Now to Love’ destination integrates several leading titles under one easy to remember banner and has attracted an average four week audience of over 2.5 million Australians in the 9 months to September.

“Are Media, which brings together the magazines formerly owned by Bauer Media and Pacific Magazines, relaunched during the quarter with a focus on being the leading provider of premium content for women and connecting with them on the things they care about. Are Media's magazines have undisputed strength in the homes, beauty, entertainment and lifestyle categories.

“However, despite many non-essential businesses from which magazines are sold being forced to close during periods of lockdown, there are still many magazines with substantial average issue print readerships including five magazines with a print readership of over 1 million Australians and nearly a dozen with average issue print readerships in excess of 500,000.

“Are Media’s Better Homes & Gardens is Australia’s most widely read paid magazine with an average issue print readership in the year to September 2020 of over 1.4 million and stablemate Australian Women’s Weekly with an average issue print readership of 1.12 million reaches a huge number of Australians each month.

“There have been several magazines to increase their average issue print readership over the last year including That’s Life Mega Monthly up 1.7 per cent to 410,000, 4x4 Australia up 26.7 per cent to 152,000, Vogue Living up 18.4 per cent to 148,000 and Australian Golf Digest up 21.3 per cent to 57,000.”

Visit the Roy Morgan website for further details on Roy Morgan’s latest average issue print readership figures for Magazines: http://www.roymorganuat.com/industries/media/readership/magazine-readership.

Roy Morgan’s latest 7 day print readership figures for Newspapers: http://www.roymorganuat.com/industries/media/readership/newspaper-readership.

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