Chapter 3
Audience
Over half the population read metropolitan newspapers, more at week-ends
Notwithstanding the rise of other media, a large proportion of the Australian reading-age public buys and reads national and metropolitan newspapers regularly. An even bigger number reads the (mostly) free suburban newspapers.
The latest data indicate that during the week, Monday to Friday, 2.3 million Australians buy one or more national and metropolitan newspapers which are read by nine million people.
That number of purchases increases to more than three million on Saturday with 10.4 million readers and to 3.5 million with 10.8 million readers on Sundays.
In other words 54.6 per cent of the 16.5 million Australians who are 15 years or more read a Monday to Friday newspaper, a figure that rises to 63.5 per cent on Saturdays and to 65.5 per cent for Sunday newspapers.
In the national interest it is important that knowledge of the range of people who read and become exposed to the content of newspapers becomes available regularly. Public policy makers need to know both how many of the public are well informed about matters of public interest and how useful newspapers can be in communicating the thinking of the public or persuading readers of the desirability of policies they wish to pursue.
And, not least, for all media, evidence of the volume of readers, viewers, or site visitors, their characteristics, what they read, hear or see, and even the selectivity and intensity of their engagement, is crucial for commercial success and longevity.
No decline in newspaper titles
There are 49 daily English language newspapers. There are two national dailies, The Australian (News Limited) and The Australian Financial Review (Fairfax); ten metropolitan daily newspapers; and eleven metropolitan Sunday newspapers. Only two metropolitan daily papers, The Canberra Times and The West Australian, are controlled by proprietors independent of News Limited and the Fairfax Group.
The number of regional daily titles has remained constant at 36 over that period, although some of what were family owned newspapers have become part of the big companies.
Other newspapers (in three Audit Bureau of Circulation categories) are Suburban/ Community newspapers (186 titles), Country Press newspapers (238 titles) and Regional Community newspapers (162 titles). Some are genuine newspapers that that have substantial circulation (e.g., The St George & Sutherland Shire Leader with 135,000). Others vary from being little more than advertising vehicles to papers with substantial news content.
In addition, there are more than a hundred non-English language newspapers, nine of them dailies, four in Chinese languages and the others in Greek, Italian, Korean, Serbian and Vietnamese.
Three new papers started since 2000 have been a weekly Independent in Adelaide in 2004 (readership numbers 39,000) and two free metro newspapers initiated by News Limited in Melbourne in 2001 ( Mx, readership numbers 135,000) and Sydney in 2004 ( Mx, readership numbers 54,000).
The magazine market has hundreds of titles, the dominant proprietors being Australian Consolidated Press (11 of the top circulation 20), Pacific Publishing (4 of the top 20) and Federal Publishing (2 of the top 20). Very few are news magazines.
Circulation
Historical
As in other countries, Australian circulation figures for national and metropolitan newspapers peaked in the late 1970s, after a steep rise during and in the years immediately after the Second World War coinciding, at least in part, with the rise in population and educational levels.
Circulation declines exhibit a delayed linkage with the availability and affordability of television which was first introduced a decade earlier. Declines appear to be more related to the availability of coaxial cable, satellites and lightweight recording devices which transformed the capacity of TV to present news in real time.
National newspaper circulation trends from 1940 to 2005 (Audit Bureau of Circulation figures) are shown in Figure 1. Raw circulation figures for metropolitan newspapers Monday to Saturday are shown in the first graph while the second smooths out the figures into five year trends. The trends, shown best in the five year interval graph identify the peak circulation period as the decade 1975 to about 1985. Since then the overall loss of circulation has been of the order of 20 per cent.
Fig. 1 National circulation of metropolitan newspapers Monday to Saturday 1940-2005
Figure 2 indicates that on a national basis the circulation of Sunday papers, apart from a dip during a recessionary period in the nineties, has continued to rise fairly steadily.
Fig. 2 National circulation of Sunday newspapers 1940-2005
The circulation trend for regional dailies, shown in Figure 3, indicate a period of hardship in the 1960s, after which the trend is the same as for the metropolitan newspapers, reaching a peak at the same time, and a substantial decline since.
Fig. 3. National circulation of regional dailies 1940-2005
National metropolitan daily circulation declines have levelled out
The three dailies that are broadsheets ( The Australian, The Age, and The Sydney Morning Herald) cover the news in detail but do not purport to be papers of record in the sense that term applies to The New York Times and The Washington Post. Although the remainder of the metropolitan newspapers are compact/ tabloid in format they are more comprehensive in reporting the news, and adhere much more to newspaper accuracy, fairness and balance standards than the red-top tabloids of the UK.
In each of the two most populous states, NSW and Victoria, there are two dailies (see Table 1 for circulation details), one a broadsheet and the other a tabloid. All other States and Territories have one Monday to Saturday tabloid newspaper and a tabloid Sunday paper.
In the decade 1995-2005, there has been a 6 per cent overall decrease in Monday to Friday national metropolitan circulation from 2.426 million to 2.273 million, pretty much steady circulation in Saturday editions at 3.038 million compared with 3.054 million ten years earlier, and a significant growth of 5.3 per cent in Sunday circulation from the earlier figure of 3.278 million to 3.453 million.
National circulation figures for the year ending June 2006, set out in tables 1-3 are reasonably encouraging for proprietors. There was a slight increase (0.2 per cent) in the Monday to Friday metropolitan newspaper circulation figures, balanced by slight decreases in Saturday (0.5per cent) and Sunday (0.8 per cent). In short, the overall picture is pretty much a steady state situation,
Overall, Australian figures compare favourably with reported July 2006 circulation losses in the UK for four large-circulation dailies of 5.9 per cent to 19.3 per cent, and average U.S circulation losses of 2.5 per cent3.
| Title | 2006 | 2005 | 2004 | 2003 | 2002 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Australian | 131,538 | 133,841 | 133,711 | 132,213 | 130,378 |
| The Financial Review | 86,182 | 85,373 | 85,366 | 85,120 | 88,674 |
| The Canberra Times | 36,027 | 36,695 | 38,155 | 38,813 | 38,694 |
| The Daily Telegraph | 396,497 | 397,915 | 403,127 | 407,498 | 406,200 |
| The Sydney Morning Herald | 212,078 | 210,085 | 216,827 | 225,737 | 228,800 |
| The Age | 201,000 | 193,000 | 198,500 | 197,700 | 197,700 |
| The Herald Sun | 554,700 | 551,500 | 551,100 | 550,032 | 548,764 |
| The Courier-Mail | 216,075 | 211,279 | 214,814 | 219,451 | 215,371 |
| The Advertiser | 195,903 | 201,323 | 202,135 | 204,502 | 203,582 |
| The West Australian | 205,610 | 207,914 | 205,362 | 205,266 | 207,793 |
| The Mercury | 48,886 | 49,601 | 50,382 | 50,368 | 49,895 |
| The N.T. News | 21,172 | 22,090 | 22,367 | 22,409 | 22,151 |
| TOTAL | 2,305,668 | 2,300,616 | 2,321,846 | 2,339,109 | 2,338,002 |
| Title | 2006 | 2005 | 2004 | 2003 | 2002 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Australian | 293,966 | 291,752 | 300,360 | 295,168 | 297,158 |
| The Financial Review | 90,998 | 89,360 | 87,680 | 86,679 | 90,320 |
| The Canberra Times | 67,371 | 68,743 | 71,049 | 72,835 | 72,080 |
| The Daily Telegraph | 342,724 | 342,657 | 341,24 | 341,062 | 335,388 |
| The Sydney Morning Herald | 363,901 | 360,323 | 373,750 | 391,678 | 399,455 |
| The Age | 301,000 | 297,500 | 304,200 | 315,250 | 318,900 |
| The Herald Sun | 522,400 | 523,500 | 521,000 | 517,650 | 515,598 |
| The Courier-Mail | 326,825 | 333,910 | 342,253 | 346,445 | 343,323 |
| The Advertiser | 269,695 | 274,364 | 278,385 | 281,117 | 280,490 |
| The West Australian | 372,608 | 380,417 | 381,079 | 384,976 | 385,871 |
| The Mercury | 63,554 | 64,297 | 64,905 | 65,194 | 65,308 |
| The N.T. News | 31,511 | 32,442 | 31,932 | 31,777 | 31,773 |
| TOTAL | 3,046,553 | 3,059,265 | 3,097,833 | 3,129,831 | 3,135,664 |
By 2006 the differences in the weekday circulation figures and those for Saturday and Sunday are striking. Nationally, Saturday circulation is 32 per cent higher than the weekday figures. Nationally the Sunday figures are even higher being 51.7 per cent greater.
| Title | 2006 | 2005 | 2004 | 2003 | 2002 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Canberra Times | 36,892 | 37,844 | 38,877 | 39,161 | 39,075 |
| The Sun-Herald | 516,394 | 514,542 | 524,777 | 542,735 | 559,725 |
| The Sunday Telegraph | 702,125 | 720,030 | 726,153 | 734,021 | 726,906 |
| The Sunday Age | 210,000 | 200,000 | 194,500 | 194,500 | 199,350 |
| Sunday Herald Sun | 623,000 | 620,000 | 603,000 | 582,630 | 570,647 |
| The Sunday Mail (Qld) | 607,975 | 615,920 | 615,328 | 611,298 | 601,851 |
| The Sunday Mail (SA) | 324,973 | 330,998 | 334,872 | 340,667 | 345,407 |
| The Sunday Times (WA) | 347,500 | 354,000 | 354,000 | 352,000 | 346,037 |
| The Sunday Examiner (Tas) | 44,308 | 44,453 | 44,407 | 43,425 | 42,012 |
| The Sunday Tasmanian | 61,391 | 61,110 | 59,720 | 59,227 | 58,245 |
| The Sunday Territorian | 23,386 | 24,811 | 24,535 | 25,422 | 27,083 |
| TOTAL | 3,497,944 | 3,523,708 | 3,520,169 | 3,525,086 | 3,516,338 |
While there have been circulation declines, they are not, so far, as catastrophic as some doomsayers have claimed. Certainly there are gainers and losers; individual newspapers have always been challenged to build their brand and to maintain or expand their circulation figures. 2006 figures compared with 2005 suggest a more stable period. On that data Australians retain a strong interest in accessing news via newspapers. Any suggestion of terminal decline is at the very least premature.
Circulation of regional dailies4 is declining
The 36 regional dailies are located in the main regional cities, such as Newcastle, and Wollongong in New South Wales, Cairns, Townsville, Gold Coast and Toowoomba in Queensland, Bendigo, Ballarat, and Geelong in Victoria and Launceston and Burnie in Tasmania. In total 13 are in NSW, 14 in Queensland, 2 in Tasmania, 6 in Victoria and 1 in Western Australia.
Eight have Monday to Friday circulations of 25,000 or more, seven circulations of 15,000 -25,000, seven circulations of 10,000-15000 and the remaining fourteen circulations of fewer than 10,000.
The circulation of regional dailies has declined by 8.3 per cent in the period 2001-2006 from the earlier figure of 646,000 to 595,000, possibly due to population decreases in rural areas.
It is not possible to ascertain how many people buy regional dailies as their sole newspaper. There are certainly many households who take more than one paper and persons who read more than one in the course of their work.
Vitality of rural, country & suburban/ community newspapers
There are newspapers in the suburbs of capital cities and in most country towns/ rural areas. In general country/ rural papers have a cover price while most of the suburban newspapers are free. Most are weeklies.
As Table 4 shows, the Audit Bureau of Circulation's figures record 587 titles in 2004 with the combined national weekly circulation totalling over 13 million. It is not a reliable reader figure because there are two or even three titles serving some towns and suburbs, but it is nevertheless a good indication that there are few populated areas in Australia without a local paper. Moreover while some carry little content, others are substantial. Within these figures are seven titles with circulations over 100,000 and 61 titles that have circulations over 50,000.
| State | City/ suburban community Titles | City suburban community Circulation | Country Press Titles | Country press Circulation | Regional community Titles | Regional community Circulation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ACT | 2 | 162 | — | — | — | — |
| NSW | 46 | 2,480 | 88 | 200 | 47 | 1,385 |
| NT | 1 | 26 | 3 | 9 | 1 | 11 |
| Qld | 17 | 831 | 30 | 105 | 59 | 1,296 |
| SA | 12 | 622 | 29 | 116 | 3 | 44 |
| Tas | — | — | 5 | 11 | 3 | 52 |
| Vic | 89 | 3,292 | 67 | 178 | 25 | 626 |
| WA | 21 | 1,066 | 15 | 53 | 24 | 325 |
| Total | 188 | 8,648 | 237 | 672 | 162 | 3,759 |
Source: Communication Update, Communications Law Centre, June 2005.
Typical of the circulation trends for this type of newspaper is the data from the Leader Group (a News Limited, Melbourne, subsidiary with 44 titles). The Group's circulation and readership figures in Table 5 indicate circulation increases of 10.6 per cent in the period 2001-2006 and readership increases of 11.9 per cent.
| Year | Circulation (m.) | Readership (m.) |
|---|---|---|
| 2001 | 1.313 | 1.688 |
| 2002 | 1.328 | 1.762 |
| 2003 | 1.349 | 1.793 |
| 2004 | 1.381 | 1.838 |
| 2005 | 1.403 | 1.889 |
Source: The Leader Group
Ethnic newspapers
Over 100 ethnic newspapers are published in 35 languages mostly with circulation of around 20,000 or less with the exception of the Vietnamese daily paper whose circulation is 98,0005.
Magazines
The circulation figures for Australia's general interest magazines are hard to compare because there has been a great turnover in the number of titles over recent years. However, based on figures for a list of 21 magazines that have been published continuously since 1996, and that includes the largest circulations magazines as well as those with a particular emphasis on news reporting, it is apparent that while there was a large decline in circulation in the years between 1996 and 2001, that decline has levelled off in the years between 2001 and 2006. The 21 magazines considered (which are listed in the Appendix) sold a combined 6.680 million copies in 1996, 4.818 million in 2001 and 4.714 million in 2006.
The news is not good for the magazines aimed at news. Added together, The Bulletin, Time Australia and BRW sold about 327,000 in 1996, 241,000 in 2001 and 218,300 in 2006.
Fig. 4 Circulation of news magazines 1996-2006
Readership
One senior executive (Ken Steinke, The Australian, 24.08.06) recently echoed the common view among newspaper executives that it is the number of eyes that see what is in the paper, whether news content or advertisements, that is the real pointer to the health of newspapers: "…one of the things we need to do, in my view, is to stop being quite so obsessed with circulation; the only thing that matters is readership.'
Readership figures are universally larger than circulation figures, on the perfectly proper basis that newspapers and magazines that come into a household, company, or institution are usually read by more than one person. Australian readership figures for large metropolitan newspapers are near the lower end of the range established in international readership surveys, that is, within the range of 3.5-4.0 times the circulation.
Metropolitan dailies readership
Readership figures for the last five years in Table 6 show that in that time metropolitan newspapers have increased readership of Monday to Friday editions by approximately 1 per cent. In the same period there has been a decline of 3.8 per cent for Saturday editions and 2.1 per cent for Sunday editions. As with circulation, the readership figures for particular newspapers have varied.
The proportion of the national population reading newspapers6 quoted at the beginning of this chapter, 54.6 per cent for Monday to Friday editions and 63.5 and 65.5 per cent for the Saturday and Sunday editions respectively, compare with the "…just more than half of Americans (54 per cent) [that] read a newspaper during the week, somewhat more (62 per cent) on Sundays.'7
The difference between purchasing and readership habits is interesting. Compared with those who buy Monday to Friday papers, 30 per cent more buy but only seven per cent more read Saturday papers. Similarly 50 per cent more buy but only 11 per cent more people read Sunday papers.
Plausible explanations for the divergence in circulation and readership figures between Monday to Friday and the Saturday and Sunday papers include, one, that a larger number of people have less time to read during the week, but, as is the case in other parts of the world, catch up by buying newspapers and spending more time on reading at the weekend, and two, the weekend editions are bigger; have more sections and are therefore a more attractive purchase proposition. One other possible explanation is that more people read an employer supplied paper during the week.
Table 6. Readership of metropolitan dailies June 2001- June 2006
| Title | 2006 | 2005 | 2004 | 2003 | 2002 | 2001 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Australian | 416 | 416 | 420 | 459 | 428 | 430 |
| The Financial Review | 268 | 270 | 275 | 296 | 287 | 291 |
| The Daily Telegraph | 1,183 | 1,194 | 1132 | 1224 | 1211 | 1151 |
| The Sydney Morning Herald | 876 | 883 | 856 | 895 | 897 | 817 |
| The Canberra Times | 122 | 129 | 119 | 121 | 111 | 118 |
| The Herald Sun (Vic) | 1,523 | 1,484 | 1553 | 1487 | 1508 | 1522 |
| The Age | 724 | 721 | 706 | 700 | 676 | 649 |
| The Courier-Mail | 596 | 616 | 626 | 606 | 585 | 594 |
| The Adelaide Advertiser | 573 | 564 | 569 | 584 | 580 | 576 |
| The West Australian | 584 | 606 | 599 | 576 | 621 | 627 |
| The Mercury | 131 | 124 | 131 | 130 | 131 | 132 |
| TOTAL | 9,00 | 9,012 | 8,990 | 9,081 | 9037 | 8908 |
| Title | 2006 | 2005 | 2004 | 2003 | 2002 | 2001 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Australian | 843 | 870 | 874 | 917 | 911 | 901 |
| The Financial Review | 181 | 162 | 176 | 178 | 188 | 192 |
| The Daily Telegraph | 981 | 982 | 895 | 982 | 996 | 937 |
| The Sydney Morning Herald | 1,176 | 1,206 | 1,255 | 1,331 | 1307 | 1279 |
| The Canberra Times | 178 | 190 | 174 | 180 | 179 | 188 |
| The Herald Sun (Vic) | 1,384 | 1,409 | 1,445 | 1,404 | 1464 | 1424 |
| The Age | 960 | 988 | 992 | 1009 | 1070 | 1059 |
| The Courier-Mail | 870 | 891 | 941 | 941 | 940 | 935 |
| The Adelaide Advertiser | 734 | 732 | 725 | 752 | 741 | 731 |
| The West Australian | 969 | 998 | 1022 | 1035 | 1045 | 1044 |
| The Mercury | 154 | 151 | 155 | 156 | 161 | 160 |
| TOTAL: | 10,436 | 10,584 | 10,658 | 10,888 | 11004 | 10851 |
| Title | 2006 | 2005 | 2004 | 2003 | 2002 | 2001 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Sunday Telegraph | 1,818 | 1,891 | 1796 | 1949 | 1924 | 1914 |
| The Sun-Herald | 1,354 | 1,421 | 1429 | 1492 | 1519 | 1530 |
| The Canberra Times (Sunday ed.) | 103 | 112 | 105 | 109 | 103 | 108 |
| The Sunday Herald Sun | 1,531 | 1,583 | 1589 | 1508 | 1530 | 1478 |
| The Sunday Age | 699 | 652 | 665 | 654 | 659 | 660 |
| The Sunday Mail (Qld) | 1,493 | 1,492 | 1487 | 1494 | 1418 | 1465 |
| The Sunday Mail (SA) | 790 | 790 | 785 | 783 | 807 | 804 |
| The Sunday Times (WA) | 854 | 916 | 912 | 897 | 890 | 922 |
| The Sunday Tasmanian | 148 | 142 | 139 | 136 | 137 | 141 |
| TOTAL: | 10,796 | 10,796 | 10911 | 11025 | 10989 | 11023 |
Source Roy Morgan Research
A steady level of readership of regional dailies
The most recent year-on-year readership figures for the eight biggest circulation regional dailies Monday-Friday and Saturday, between 2005 and 2006, while recording the normal ups and downs of particular papers, on the whole are steady, the differences being limited to a half a per cent increase in Monday to Friday and about the same decrease in Saturday readership. Table 7 shows the differences.
| Regional dailies | June 06 | June 05 | + or - % |
|---|---|---|---|
| Newcastle Herald (M-F) | 136,000 | 148,000 | - 8.11 |
| Newcastle Herald (Sat) | 212,000 | 219,000 | - 3.20 |
| Illawarra Mercury (M-F) | 95,000 | 90,000 | + 5.56 |
| Illawarra Mercury (Sat) | 125,000 | 112,000 | +11.61 |
| Geelong Advertiser (M-F) | 74,000 | 91,000 | -18.60 |
| Geelong Advertiser (Sat) | 112,000 | 132,000 | -15.15 |
| Cairns Post (M-F) | 87,000 | 81,000 | + 7.41 |
| Cairns Post(Sat) | 109,000 | 107,000 | + 1.87 |
| Gold Coast Bulletin (M-F) | 103,000 | 94,000 | + 9.50 |
| Gold Coast Bulletin (Sat) | 172,000 | 167,000 | + 2.99 |
| Townsville Bulletin M-F) | 84,000 | 73,000 | +15.5 |
| Townsville Bulletin (Sat) | 104,000 | 102,000 | + 1.96 |
| Launceston Examiner (M-F) | 85,000 | 82,000 | + 3.66 |
| Launceston Examiner (Sat) | 99,000 | 97,000 | + 2.06 |
| Burnie Advocate (M-F) | 61,000 | 62,000 | - 1.61 |
| Burnie Advocate (Sat) | 67,000 | 70,000 | - 4.29 |
Source Roy Morgan Research
Reliable readership data for Suburban/ Community & Country newspapers is not available. The best indication from the Leader newspaper group data set out in Table 5 is an increase in readership of the order of 12 per cent over the last five years.
Readership characteristics are vitally important
Raw readership figures are insufficient for both proprietors and advertisers. They want to know as much as possible more about the distribution of the paper and its readers' gender, age, educational levels, and the parts of the paper that are read and by whom. Current data give a good picture.
Distribution
All national and metropolitan newspapers distribute a substantial proportion of their circulation to country areas. In New South Wales the proportion is 30-35 per cent. In Victoria it is 26-30 per cent. In Queensland the proportion is 24.5 per cent except for The Sunday Mail which increases to 44 per cent. In South Australia and Tasmania the proportion is 18-20 per cent.
Demographics
One characteristic of special interest to advertisers is the wealth and purchasing power of readers. The A-B demographic is of particular interest as is shown by the tone of the extract from a press release in Figure 4. Of those readers who read broadsheet newspapers, approximately 42 per cent indicated that their household income was in excess of $80,000, while only 12 per cent of broadsheet readers have a household income of less than $40,000. Conversely, of those readers who read tabloid or non-broadsheet newspapers, about 29.6 per cent have a household income in excess of $80,000, about 21 per cent claim a household income of $40,000 to $80,000 and about 21 per cent have a household income of less than $40,000.
Fig. 5. Morgan Research Press Release on A-B Demographic readership figures
In percentage terms managers and white collar workers comprise 62.5 per cent of the readership of The Australian Monday to Friday (source: Medianet), and somewhat less on Saturday, while for the best selling newspapers, The Daily Telegraph in Sydney and the Herald Sun in Melbourne the percentages in those categories drop to 37.2 and 32.0 per cent respectively for Monday-Friday editions.
Gender
For both the week-day and weekend editions of most metropolitan newspapers in Australia the gender proportions are nearly equal with slightly more male readers than female readers (averaging 51-52 per cent compared to 49-48 percent). Two exceptions are Tasmania where there are slightly more female (50.6 per cent) than male readers for both weekday and weekend editions and The Australian where 61 per cent of weekday readers are men.
Age
The age distribution of their readers carries mixed messages. For the majority of newspapers the percentages of readers under 25 are grouped at the low level of 15-16 per cent with more than 40 per cent of their readership over 50. For the national newspaper, The Australian, the Monday to Friday proportions are 9.5 and 43.7 per cent and not much better for Saturday, at 11 per cent and 49 per cent. One message advertisers seem to insist upon is the necessity to reach young people, whereas the high proportion of disposable cash in the growing numbers of people over 50 might be an equally or more important advertising consideration.
The main exceptions are in the Northern Territory, where 17 per cent of readers are under 25 and slightly fewer than 30 are 50+, and Melbourne where the free Mx paper taps a readership with 33 per cent under 25 and only 8.8 per cent 50+.
Fig. 6. Age of metropolitan newspaper readers
Readership of sections of newspapers
Another important question concerns the sections of the newspapers that are read and by whom? As is shown in Figure 4 compiled by Roy Morgan Research about 70 per cent of readers read national, state and local news, with a big drop to less than 50 per cent who read other sections. Non-news readers apparently go for cartoons, sport, and television and cinema information.
Fig.7. Sectional readership of newspapers
Source Roy Morgan Research
Effectiveness
Of course, how readers engage with newspapers in comparison with other media, the question of effectiveness, is also important. Nearly 50 per cent of readers concentrate on reading newspapers to the exclusion of other activities compared with 16 per cent for TV and 9 per cent for radio8.
In 2006 Hemisphere Group and Ipsos surveyed readers in NSW, Queensland and Victoria on behalf of Fairfax and News Limited to obtain evidence on magazine industry claims that magazines included in newspapers failed to build strong relationships with their readers. The survey reported that newspaper magazines "…absorb readers more deeply than newsstand rivals and build up greater trust and loyalty." The data showed that 73 per cent of readers go through at least half of a magazine in detail, that 63 per cent compared with 54 per cent of other magazine readers read most current issues. and that they are more loyal with 48 per cent reading the four most recent issues compared with magazine readers at 32 per cent9 Newspaper magazine readers spend 53 seconds compared with 40 seconds per page.
Penetration
Advertisers are also interested in the penetration of newspapers in a given area, roughly the proportion of the total households that buy the newspaper. Data on this aspect of the audience for newspapers was not available.
The concept of audience share
Increasingly the measure of readership will centre on the combined total of unique print and on-line readers. Roy Morgan Research and individual newspapers already suggest that audience share is a truer measure of readership. When the readership of editions circulated in both media is counted, a positive readership picture emerges.
Examples of the aggregated picture for The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and the Herald Sun are given in Figure 6. Counting hits on their web-sites as part of their total readership the combined total in 2006 is 5 per cent to 19 per cent bigger than the equivalent total for 2003.
The most recent research reports10 greatly increased traffic to masthead web-sites of between 45-132 per cent (see Chapter 5 for details).
Fig.8. Readership of print and online versions of three newspapers 2003-2006
Source Roy Morgan Research
Debate about measurement of readership
Evidently companies believe readership data are soft and not especially reliable. In mid-2006 the Chairman of News Limited, Mr John Hartigan, concerned about insufficient measurement of the readership of sections of newspapers, criticised traditional readership measurement techniques, saying "Another priority would be better measurement of readership. Roy Morgan's system, which relies on consumer awareness of mastheads, has been widely criticised by publishers and media buyers alike'. He said the system was in need of a review. In August 2006 News Limited raised 11 particular points of concern with the latest figures.
Roy Morgan Research vigorously defended (Article 536, 26.07.06) his company's readership measurement techniques, saying that "…we know the masthead method causes biases so we do not use this method in Australia, New Zealand, US, UK, or Indonesia where we continuously measure readership of newspapers, newspaper supplements, newspaper magazines and magazines – i.e., we measure all forms of print readership."
The desire for more industry input has nevertheless reached a level that has resulted in the main newspaper owners establishing a new industry body, to be known as The Newspaper Works which will become operational later in 2006.
It must be said that measurements of this kind are always a source of debate.
Measurement of readership cannot be a simple issue. The most frequently used technique is to assess average readership per issue, the precise techniques for which vary.
The possibilities range from "when did you last read x newspaper?" to as detailed as how many days per week, how far into the paper, how many of the sections? Different implications can be read into the answers. Other possible measures include reach, coverage, or cumulative audience, frequency, readers per copy, and even eye-tracking, and actions taken as a consequence of reading copies.
One academic view is that:
Readership tends to be viewed far too simplistically. Usually a single question, such a frequency of use, is employed. Sometimes different questions are used but each one is analysed separately. The use of single or separate questions, however, is problematic11.
Similarly, the apparently simple and reliable method of clocking of visits to newspaper Internet sites also has its sceptics. The Australian Financial Review ( 15 August 2006) carried a front-page article of the opportunities for fraud when click visits are taken at face value, with some unscrupulous people repeatedly visiting particular pages just to ramp up the figures (Data concerning New Media in Chapter 6 have to be read in that light).