Magazines and some papers grow back readership

Feb 25, 2024 at 12:29 pm by admin


It’s not the ups-and-downs of readership returns – some went down, and others like Stuff’s Sunday Star-Times and NZME’s Bay of Plenty Times, rose – so much as the more than 2.7 million New Zealanders who read newspapers that matter.

New readership figures released by Roy Morgan cover the 12 months to last December, and show 2.73 million New Zealanders aged 14+ (64.4 per cent) now read or access newspapers in an average seven-day period via print or online, with 1.71 million reading magazines, 1.3 per cent more than a year ago.

The New Zealand Herald is again ahead despite a small fall in readership – its cross-platform audience of 1.72 million almost five times than of next placed Dominion Post – but the readership of other geographically-focussed mastheads mounts up.

Behind the NZME flagship and Stuff’s Dominion Post are the privately-owned Otago Daily Times, Stuff’s The Press, Sunday Star-Times – which was up 5.4 per cent – and Waikato Times, and NZME’s Bay of Plenty Times (another improver, up 4.4 per cent) and Northern Advocate. Stuff’s Taranaki Daily News – which gained 1.8 per cent – rounds out the top ten.

 

Other newspapers to increase their total cross-platform audiences during 2023 included the Manawatu Standard (up 7.9 per cent), the Sunday News (up 14.5 per cent)) and the Nelson Mail (up 13.3 per cent).

 

Top 10 Newspapers – Total 7 Day Cross-Platform Audience (Print & Online)

Publication

Print

Digital
(web or app)

Total 7 Day Cross-Platform Audience* (print, web or app)

 

Dec
2022

Dec
2023

Dec
2022

Dec
2023

Dec
2022

Dec
2023

% Change

 

‘000s

‘000s

‘000s

‘000s

‘000s

‘000s

%

New Zealand Herald

484

484

1,510

1,509

1,734

1,720

-0.8%

Dominion Post

141

145

263

248

357

341

-4.5%

Otago Daily Times

84

85

219

211

267

259

-3.0%

The Press

135

119

175

172

253

246

-2.8%

Sunday Star-Times

137

151

56

56

185

195

+5.4%

Waikato Times

79

67

137

124

197

179

-9.1%

Hawke’s Bay Today

79

47

103

121

165

149

-9.7%

Bay of Plenty Times

52

58

100

95

136

142

+4.4%

Northern Advocate

60

43

115

97

158

122

-22.8%

Taranaki Daily News

31

39

98

94

114

116

+1.8%

*Cross-Platform Audience is the number of New Zealanders who have read or accessed individual newspaper content via print or online. Print is net readership in an average 7 days. Online is net readership online in an average 7 days.

 

Some four out of five of the magazines measured, 38 of them, increased their print readership in 2023.

The Roy Morgan figures list driving magazine AA Directions as the most widely read. Its average issue readership of 379,000 was up 63,000 on a year ago. Another star performer was New Zealand Listener which put on 37,000 to 218,000, up 37,000.

Fourth placed NZ Woman’s Day increased its print readership by 14,000 to 131,000 just ahead of the fifth-placed KiaOra (Air New Zealand’s inflight magazine) which increased its print readership by 50,000 to 125,000 as New Zealanders returned to travel after pandemic-era border restrictions fully ended in October 2022.

 

New Zealand’s Top 10 Magazines by Average Issue Print Readership

Publication

Dec 2022

Dec 2023

% Reach Change

 

‘000s

‘000s

%

AA Directions*

316

379

+1.3%

New Zealand Listener*

181

218

+0.8%

TV Guide*

161

138

-0.5%

NZ Woman’s Day*

117

131

+0.3%

KiaOra (Air NZ inflight magazine)

75

125

+1.1%

Australian Women’s Weekly
(NZ Edition)*

110

120

+0.2%

Habitat*

99

104

+0.1%

NZ Gardener*

80

100

+0.5%

Dish*

72

95

+0.5%

NZ Woman’s Weekly

69

92

+0.5%

Sections: Newsmedia industry