In Roy Morgan’s report on total news media readership, the Daily Mail and Sky News performed best, increasing their readership by 21 percent and 15.6 percent respectively.
The daily Email And Sky News saw a surge in readership between July 2023 and July 2024. The overall sector recorded growth of 2.6 percent, with 97 percent of Australians engaging with news content.
ThinkNewsBrands, the newspaper publishers’ trade body, said the sector was “deeply rooted in the lives of Australians”: it had 21.7 million readers aged 14 and over and nine out of 10 were interested in up to four different titles each month.
To put it in perspective, more Australians read news each week than drink coffee or milk, showing just how deeply news is embedded in Australians’ lives. These huge readership numbers show that by publishing Total News, advertisers can reach virtually any audience they want.
“Roy Morgan’s data once again demonstrates how powerful the reach of the entire news publication really is and proves that advertisers can leverage it to reach any audience they want,” said Vanessa Lyons, CEO of ThinkNewsBrands.
“The audience does not scroll past the news, but accesses multiple news brands and content categories each month and engages repeatedly. ‘News readers’ are the highly engaged, attentive audience that advertisers seek.
The fact that Australians continue to seek out news despite the cost of living crisis is testament to how important it is to them. It is also a sign of the habitual relationship readers have with news and the reliable, regular and engaged audience they can offer advertisers,” Lyons added.
“At a time when ROI is more important than ever, the data shows that messaging reaches the affluent, ready-to-buy audiences that can drive marketing campaigns to success.”
Despite the cost of living crisis, less than 1 percent of news readers canceled their subscriptions last quarter, underscoring readers’ robust and habitual relationship with news. By comparison, 37 percent of Australians cut their subscriptions to streaming services and 33 percent cut their subscriptions to magazines, apps and other goods and products in the March quarter, according to data from the National Australia Bank.
For advertisers, the overall audience of news publishers is valuable: wealthy Australians are 28 percent more likely to read the news and paying news readers are 25 percent more likely to spend big money.
Australians read multiple newspaper titles and categories. Roy Morgan data shows that 91 percent read up to four titles each month. While general news remains the most read category, with 93 percent of the population reading it, there is also high readership in other categories. In fact, 64 percent read at least three categories each month.
49 percent of the population reads the “Entertainment and Culture” category. This figure may surprise some, as this category is generally believed to be losing popularity and importance among readers.
Examination of audience profiles shows how valuable news readership is to advertisers. The data shows that Australians with high net worth (over $1 million in savings and/or investments) are 28 percent more likely to read news than the average Australian. It also shows that paying news readers are 24 percent more likely than the general population to be homeowners, more likely to experiment with new products and services, and 25 percent more likely to be big spenders. This data shows that news readership offers a high ROI.
The Sydney Morning Herald remains the most read title nationally. In Victoria The age remains the most read imprint title.
