Combined audience figures show newspapers reach nine out of ten Australians and 92 per cent of the country's metropolitan population.

The new EMMA (Enhanced Media Metrics Australia) figures show the number of people reached by print and digital platforms during May, and are up 0.4 per cent of the same period last year.

Print readership declined 3.7 per cent year-on-year to 13.9 million readers, but digital readership - across a four-week period - grew by 3.2 per cent to 11.7 million.

A statement by The Newspaper Works says national and metro print newspapers have the highest reach, with 14.3 million readers each month across print and digital platforms. Print editions reach 13.9 million readers, while national and metro digital content reach 11.3 million readers.

In regional Australia, 3.7 million people read regional newspaper media across during the period all platforms, with 3.25 million reading regional newspapers in print and 5.3 million reading community newspapers.

Digital readership continues to grow, driven mainly by mobile with 453,000 additional readers (+15.2 per cent YOY) in May 2015. Desktop/laptop and tablet audiences continue to rise, up 3.5 per cent and 5.0 per cent respectively. Mobile readership is heaviest among people aged 25-39, 38 per cent of whom have consumed newspaper content on their mobile in the last four weeks, followed by under-25s (23 per cent) and 40-54s (18 per cent).

"Increasingly people want to access the latest news and information on the go, fuelling continued growth in mobile audiences which largely offsets the gradual decline in print readership," says TNW chief executive Mark Hollands. "However EMMA data clearly shows the majority of Australians still prefer their newspaper in print."

The Sydney Morning Herald retains Australia's highest cross platform readership with a total audience of 5.1 million readers followed by the Sydney Daily Telegraph with 4.10 million and the Melbourne Herald Sun on 4.09 million.

The Herald Sun (Monday-Friday) retains the lead in average issue readership with 1.29 million followed by the Sunday Telegraph (1.12 million), the Saturday Herald Sun (1.09 million), the Sunday Herald Sun (1.05 million) and the Monday-Friday Daily Telegraph (990,000).


* Source: emma, 12 months to May 2015. Readership based on last four weeks. Trends compared with 12 months to May 2014. Survey conducted by Ipsos MediaCT, people 14+, Nielsen Online Ratings, May 2015 and May 2014, people 14+ only.