Article No. 6228 Available on www.roymorgan.com Link to Roy Morgan Profiles Thursday, 7 May 2015 Roy Morgan Newspaper Readership and Cross- Platform Audience Results for March 2015 Roy Morgan Research today releases the latest Print Readership and seven-day Cross-Platform Audience results for Australian Newspapers for the survey period 12 months to March 2015. The weekday editions of Fairfax metro newspapers in Melbourne and Sydney have bucked the E downward national trend: 564,000 people now read the average issue of The Age Monday to Friday (up 5.2% compared with the 12 months to March 2014) and 521,000 read the average Monday to Friday Sydney Morning Herald (virtually unchanged over the period). News Corp’s metro dailies in Melbourne and Sydney are still the most-read weekday papers in the country—but print readership continues to decline: the average number of print readers for the Herald Sun (M F) has fallen from over a million in March 2014 to 869,000 (down 13.2%), while the Daily Telegraph (M-F) shed 60,000 readers over the period (down 8.5% to 648,000). Some regional papers are performing strongly—or at least better than their metro equivalents: the Cairns Post (M-F) is up 9.6% to 57,000 and has maintained its Saturday readership; the Illawarra Mercury’s Saturday edition grew 15.9% to 51,000 with almost no change in weekday readership (45,000); the Sunday Canberra Times grew 12.5% to 72,000 while losing only 3.0% of Saturday readers (down to 97,000); the Mercury in Tasmania was virtually unchanged on weekdays (82,000) and gained 4.9% on Saturdays (up to 108,000). It was a mixed bag for afternoon freebie mX: while readership in Melbourne grew 5.2% to 141,000, its Brisbane and Sydney editions were each among the worst performing weekday papers. Although the Financial Review suffered double-digit decreases for both its weekday and weekend FOR IMMEDIATE RELEAS editions, its monthly AFR Magazine was the best-performing newspaper-inserted publication with 466,000 readers, up 15.6%. A large part of this success came from two highly read issues: the ever- popular Rich List issue in July and Young Rich List included in November—content now available for AFR since Fairfax discontinued the BRW print edition in late 2013. Despite a modest decline of 5.3%, Good Weekend remains the most-read newspaper magazine with 1,334,000 readers across Victoria and New South Wales. Roy Morgan Research Ltd. A.B.N. 91 007 092 944 Quality System Certified to AS/NZS ISO 9001 401 Collins Street, Melbourne, Victoria, 3000 – GPO Box 2282U, Melbourne, Victoria, 3001, Australia Tel: (03) 9629 6888 Fax: (03) 9629 1250 (03) 9224 5387 [email protected] www.roymorgan.com Weekday and Weekend Newspaper Readership M-F M-F Sat Sat Sun Sun March 2014 March 2015 March 2014 March 2015 March 2014 March 2015 Newspapers R'ship ('000s) R'ship ('000s) R'ship ('000s) R'ship ('000s) R'ship ('000s) R'ship ('000s) National The Australian 356 334 727 664 - - Aust. Financial Review 234 197 160 134 - - NSW Daily Telegraph 708 648 641 610 - - Sydney Morning Herald 520 521 771 731 - - Sunday Telegraph - - - - 1,121 1,023 The Sun-Herald - - - - 746 672 MX 153 106 - - - - Newcastle Herald 100 86 151 111 - - Illawarra Mercury 46 45 44 51 - - Canberra Times 75 70 100 97 64 72 The Saturday Paper (NSW) (from Jul14) - - - 48 - - VIC Herald Sun 1,001 869 981 853 - - The Age 536 564 706 668 - - Sunday Herald Sun - - - - 996 898 E The Sunday Age - - - - 567 564 MX 134 141 - - - - Geelong Advertiser 62 46 89 68 - - The Saturday Paper (VIC) (from Jul14) - - - 39 - - QLD Courier-Mail 493 436 618 542 - - The Sunday Mail - - - - 885 829 MX 54 41 - - - - Cairns Post 52 57 82 82 - - Gold Coast Bulletin 88 69 111 73 - - Townsville Bulletin 51 50 72 59 - - SA Adelaide Advertiser 379 334 488 391 - - Sunday Mail - - - - 529 447 WA West Australian 496 442 - - - - Weekend West - - 649 588 - - Sunday Times - - - - 536 455 Tasmania The Mercury 83 82 103 108 - - The Examiner 56 52 72 62 - - The Advocate 37 35 48 42 - - Sunday Tasmanian (Tas) - - - - 92 90 Sunday Examiner - - - - 66 63 Northern Territory Northern Territory News 37 35 51 46 - - Sunday Territorian - - - - 33 29 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEAS Roy Morgan Research Ltd. A.B.N. 91 007 092 944 Quality System Certified to AS/NZS ISO 9001 401 Collins Street, Melbourne, Victoria, 3000 – GPO Box 2282U, Melbourne, Victoria, 3001, Australia Tel: (03) 9629 6888 Fax: (03) 9629 1250 (03) 9224 5387 [email protected] www.roymorgan.com Newspaper Insert Magazines Readership Readership % of Population 14+ ('000s) Newspaper Insert Magazines Mar 2014 Mar 2015 Gain/Loss Mar 2014 Mar 2015 % Change Wish 0.4 0.4 0.0 77 71 -7.8 Weekend Australian Magazine 3.8 3.5 -0.3 738 679 -8.0 Financial Review Magazine 2.1 2.4 0.3 403 466 15.6 Boss 0.6 0.5 -0.1 109 103 -5.5 Good Weekend (NSW & Vic) 7.3 6.9 -0.4 1,408 1,334 -5.3 Sunday Style (NSW & Vic) 5.5 5.1 -0.4 1,058 989 -6.5 Sunday Life (NSW & Vic) 5.0 4.6 -0.4 958 896 -6.5 Sunday Telegraph TV Guide (NSW) 3.7 3.4 -0.3 720 650 -9.7 Sunday Herald Sun TV Guide (Vic) 3.2 2.6 -0.6 620 497 -19.8 E Qweekend (Qld) 2.2 2.0 -0.2 432 385 -10.9 Sunday Mail TV Guide (Qld) 2.9 2.6 -0.3 556 503 -9.5 Gold Coast Eye (Qld) 0.3 0.2 -0.1 55 43 -21.8 Sunday Mail TV Guide (SA) 1.9 1.7 -0.2 367 320 -12.8 SA Weekend 1.8 1.5 -0.3 343 295 -14.0 Sunday Times TV Guide (WA) 1.9 1.5 -0.4 364 282 -22.5 STM - Sunday Times Magazine (WA) 1.8 1.5 -0.3 351 291 -17.1 Seven Days (WA) 2.1 1.8 -0.3 407 348 -14.5 West Weekend (WA) 2.1 1.9 -0.2 409 368 -10.0 Cross-Platform Audiences Cross-Platform Audience is the number of Australians who read or accessed a newspaper’s content via print, web or app in an average 7-day period. Fairfax continues to lead the way with its strategic focus on digital content. The Sydney Morning Herald was the big winner, with its combined print and digital audience growing 5.5% to 3,521,000. The masthead’s 7.1% decline in net print readership (to 1,257,000) was more than offset by an 11.7% increase in the number visiting the website or using the app during an average week (to 2,815,000). The Age also posted solid digital audience growth of 5.8% (to 1,921,000) for a net cross-platform gain of 2.4% (to 2,522,000). FOR IMMEDIATE RELEAS Although all News Corp’s metro dailies lost print readers, the Daily Telegraph, Courier-Mail, Adelaide Advertiser and Sunday Times each gained digital audiences, with web/app growth in Sydney and Brisbane enough to offset the mastheads’ print declines. Brisbane’s web and app in particular did well, expanding 17.4% to now be nudging a million digital users a week. However in Melbourne the Herald Sun was one of only four mastheads to lose digital audiences over the period (alongside the Financial Review, Mercury and West Australian) delivering a 7.3% drop in audiences overall. The Australian held steady with digital, finishing up with a 3.5% decline in total cross-platform audience. However, the Financial Review lost both print readers and web/app users—combined, it shed a tenth of its total audience over the year. Roy Morgan Research Ltd. A.B.N. 91 007 092 944 Quality System Certified to AS/NZS ISO 9001 401 Collins Street, Melbourne, Victoria, 3000 – GPO Box 2282U, Melbourne, Victoria, 3001, Australia Tel: (03) 9629 6888 Fax: (03) 9629 1250 (03) 9224 5387 [email protected] www.roymorgan.com 7-day Cross Platform Audiences for Newspapers Print Digital Total Cross-Platform Audience (web or app) (print, web or app) % change in Mar 2014 Mar 2015 Mar 2014 Mar 2015 Mar 2014 Mar 2015 Total Cross- Platform Publication (000's) (000's) (000's) (000's) (000's) (000's) Audience Adelaide Advertiser 775 671 455 502 1076 1030 -4.3% Canberra Times 155 153 369 378 478 482 0.8% Courier-Mail 1314 1245 795 962 1862 1952 4.8% Daily Telegraph 1709 1573 1051 1216 2541 2547 0.2% Financial Review 459 417 370 343 769 692 -10.0% Herald Sun 1772 1587 1360 1301 2790 2587 -7.3% Mercury 149 153 109 101 241 219 -9.1% Newcastle Herald 209 176 89 132 281 294 4.6% Sunday Times 536 455 442 482 896 858 -4.2% E Sydney Morning Herald 1353 1257 2485 2815 3336 3521 5.5% The Age 1062 1059 1809 1921 2462 2522 2.4% The Australian 1039 976 992 996 1839 1774 -3.5% West Australian 936 885 564 542 1323 1276 -3.6% Print is 7-day net readership (Monday to Sunday); digital is net 7-day website visitation and app usage Click here to see the results for Newspaper Print Readership or Total Newspaper Cross-Platform Audiences for the 12 months to March 2015. Tim Martin, General Manager - Media, Roy Morgan Research, says: “These results mark for the first full 12-month on 12-month comparison since Fairfax moved to a tabloid format for its Sydney and Melbourne papers—and clearly the decision has paid off with both The Age and Sydney Morning Herald out-performing the industry.