The latest Total News readership figures, produced by Roy Morgan for ThinkNewsBrands, show a slight softening for news consumption, down 0.5 per cent with 20.6 million Australians continuing to consume news in a four-week period.
The readership figures refer to the 12 months to September 2022 and show that Total News reaches 97 per cent 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 general manager Vanessa Lyons said: “The Total News readership data continues to demonstrate that news has a greater reach and frequency than many people think. It is important information for agencies and advertisers providing a holistic view of the size, capability and common strengths of news for their audiences.”
News readership is largely digitally driven, with 19.6 of the 20.6 million readers engaging with news in digital channels each month. Less than 5 per cent of Australians read news solely in printed format. This is reflected in the September readership figures. While print has seen a 12.2 per cent decline in readership, due to the skew to digital news consumption, overall readership has dipped by just 0.5 per cent.
Total news readership:
Demographically, Total News continues to engage all age groups, including younger audiences, with 96 per cent of Australians under the age of 40 reading news each month.
Readership demographics:
Australia’s masthead brands continue to command large audiences, as demonstrated by the below table. The Sydney Morning Herald has topped the charts with an 8.4 million readership, followed by The Age with 5.8 million.
Top 10 most-read news brands:
This is the first readership release following the re-engineering of Roy Morgan’s digital audience measurement data which has been updated from July 2020 onwards.
The recalibrated digital audience data feeds into Total News to present the most accurate view of audience performance and unique audience profiling. Data can be compared year-on-year without a trend break.
See also: ThinkNewsBrands shows news reaches 97% of Australians over 14