2. Audience
Circulation
A caveat needs to be made about any attempt to compare 2007 figures with those from July 2006 and earlier. In May 2006 the Audit Bureau of Circulations adopted a new set of rules, coming into effect in July 2006, so true like-for-like data comparisons will not be possible and there can be no genuine comparison to previous reporting of net paid sales until 2008.
The new rules mandated the introduction of four audits per year, each covering thirteen weeks for national, metropolitan and Sunday newspapers, weekly magazines and regional dailies with circulation greater than 25,000, replacing the previous system of six-monthly audits supplemented by six month rolling publisher's statements. Other changes include:
- increased disclosure of the composition of net paid sales - to delineate different types of sales;
- simplification of the audit rules - including clearer definitions that make it easier for publishers and advertisers to understand and use as the basis for decision making; and;
- a new audit inspection role to strengthen the compliance regime and increase the transparency of the audit process as well upgrading leadership and supervision of the audits.
The new rules mean that there will now be far greater transparency in knowing the various elements that make up the "Average Net Paid Sales" and through the increase in audit frequency there should be a much stronger confidence in the data integrity.
Given those reservations, the latest data indicate that during the week, Monday to Friday, there has been a slight fall in circulation but about 2.3 million Australians buy one or more national and metropolitan newspapers. That number of purchases increases on Saturday and again on Sundays, although it would appear that Sunday newspapers have suffered from a greater decline.
Historical figures for circulation are in the State of the News Print Media in Australia Report 2006 and can be accessed there.
Metropolitan and national newspapers
The 2006-2007 circulation statistics appear to reinforce the same trends as seen in the readership figures (above). The national and state-based broadsheet newspapers have slightly increased circulation (the sole exception to the matching of readership trends is that the Financial Review has increased circulation despite an apparent drop in readership) but the various state-based tabloids (except for The Courier-Mail) have suffered small circulation falls. The Sunday papers (except for The Sunday Age) seem to have suffered the most consistent fall.
National circulation figures (for metropolitan and national dailies, and Sundays, excluding the afternoon free commuter newspapers, Mx in Sydney and Melbourne, and the new brisbanetimes.com.au website) for the year ending June 2007, set out in the following tables are still reasonably encouraging for proprietors. In short, the overall picture for circulation through the printed copy is pretty steady as you go.
Overall, Australian figures continue to compare favourably with reported circulation losses in the UK and average U.S. circulation losses.
Circulation of metropolitan and national dailies June 2002 - June 2007
| Title | 2007 | 2006 | 2005 | 2004 | 2003 | 2002 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Australian | 133,000 | 131,538 | 133,841 | 133,711 | 132,213 | 130,378 |
| The Financial Review | 88,264 | 86,182 | 85,373 | 85,366 | 85,120 | 88,674 |
| The Canberra Times | 33,935 | 36,027 | 36,695 | 38,155 | 38,813 | 38,694 |
| The Daily Telegraph | 392,000 | 396,497 | 397,915 | 403,127 | 407,498 | 406,200 |
| Sydney Morning Herald | 212,700 | 212,078 | 210,085 | 216,827 | 225,737 | 228,800 |
| The Age | 207,000 | 201,000 | 193,000 | 198,500 | 197,700 | 197,700 |
| The Herald Sun | 535,000 | 554,700 | 551,500 | 551,100 | 550,032 | 548,764 |
| The Courier-Mail | 221,049 | 216,075 | 211,279 | 214,814 | 219,451 | 215,371 |
| The Advertiser | 191,325 | 195,903 | 201,323 | 202,135 | 204,502 | 203,582 |
| The West Australian | 203,328 | 205,610 | 207,914 | 205,362 | 205,266 | 207,793 |
| The Mercury | 46,985 | 48,886 | 49,601 | 50,382 | 50,368 | 49,895 |
| The N.T. News | 20,880 | 21,172 | 22,090 | 22,367 | 22,409 | 22,151 |
| Title | 2007 | 2006 | 2005 | 2004 | 2003 | 2002 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Australian | 299,500 | 293,966 | 291,752 | 300,360 | 295,168 | 297,158 |
| The Financial Review | 92,194 | 90,998 | 89,360 | 87,680 | 86,679 | 90,320 |
| The Canberra Times | 63,115 | 67,371 | 68,743 | 71,049 | 72,835 | 72,080 |
| The Daily Telegraph | 340,000 | 342,724 | 342,657 | 341,24 | 341,062 | 335,388 |
| Sydney Morning Herald | 364,000 | 363,901 | 360,323 | 373,750 | 391,678 | 399,455 |
| The Age | 301,000 | 301,000 | 297,500 | 304,200 | 315,250 | 318,900 |
| The Herald Sun | 513,000 | 522,400 | 523,500 | 521,000 | 517,650 | 515,598 |
| The Courier-Mail | 316,662 | 326,825 | 333,910 | 342,253 | 346,445 | 343,323 |
| The Advertiser | 259,807 | 269,695 | 274,364 | 278,385 | 281,117 | 280,490 |
| The West Australian | 356,844 | 372,608 | 380,417 | 381,079 | 384,976 | 385,871 |
| The Mercury | 61,985 | 63,554 | 64,297 | 64,905 | 65,194 | 65,308 |
| The N.T. News | 31,150 | 31,511 | 32,442 | 31,932 | 31,777 | 31,773 |
| Title | 2007 | 2006 | 2005 | 2004 | 2003 | 2002 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Canberra Times | 34,674 | 36,892 | 37,844 | 38,877 | 39,161 | 39,075 |
| The Sun-Herald | 505,000 | 516,394 | 514,542 | 524,777 | 542,735 | 559,725 |
| The Sunday Telegraph | 671,500 | 702,125 | 720,030 | 726,153 | 734,021 | 726,906 |
| The Sunday Age | 225,000 | 210,000 | 200,000 | 194,500 | 194,500 | 199,350 |
| Sunday Herald Sun | 620,000 | 623,000 | 620,000 | 603,000 | 582,630 | 570,647 |
| The Sunday Mail (Qld) | 592,440 | 607,975 | 615,920 | 615,328 | 611,298 | 601,851 |
| The Sunday Mail (SA) | 318,179 | 324,973 | 330,998 | 334,872 | 340,667 | 345,407 |
| The Sunday Times (WA) | 336,500 | 347,500 | 354,000 | 354,000 | 352,000 | 346,037 |
| The Sunday Tasmanian | 60,134 | 61,391 | 61,110 | 59,720 | 59,227 | 58,245 |
| The Sunday Territorian | 22,340 | 23,386 | 24,811 | 24,535 | 25,422 | 27,083 |
Source: Audit Bureau of Circulations
Regional dailies
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, two in Tasmania, six in Victoria and one 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.
As reported in the State of the News Print Media in Australia Report 2006, the circulation of regional dailies 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.
In the last year this has further declined by about 2.5 per cent to around 580,000.
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.
Community newspapers
The State of the News Print Media in Australia Report 2006 included data on the circulations of suburban/community newspapers. In this supplement, rather than revisiting the entire sector, the circulation and readership of Leader Newspapers in Melbourne might be taken as a representation of the trends within the sector. Looking at the figures at two-yearly intervals, the group claims an increasing circulation, while the Roy Morgan Research figures (supplemented by publishers' claims for a small number of titles) indicates a continually growing readership. This is the mirror-image of the impact of population decline on regional daily newspapers. The suburban areas of the majority of the major capitals continue to grow and the population growth is reflected in the increased circulation and readership of the fee suburban newspapers. Another point worth noting is the relationship between circulation and readership. In metropolitan newspapers, there are about 3.5-4 readers for every copy; in suburbans that ratio drops to just 1.25.
Circulation trends in the suburban Leader newspaper group 2001-2007
| Year | Circulation (m.) | Readership (m.) |
|---|---|---|
| 2001 | 1.313 | 1.688 |
| 2003 | 1.349 | 1.793 |
| 2005 | 1.403 | 1.889 |
| 2007 | 1.576 | 1.937 |
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 98,000.
Magazines
The circulation figures for Australia's general interest magazines are hard to compare because of the rise of new titles and because of the change in 2006-2007 of the Audit Bureau's rules (see above). For these reasons comparisons between 2006 and 2007 are difficult. The State of the News Print Media in Australia Report 2006 suggested that there had been a large decline in circulation in the years between 1996 and 2001 but that decline has levelled off in the years between 2001 and 2006. Taking 20 magazines considered then (one has ceased publishing - list in Appendix) sold a combined 5.2129 million in 2001 and 5.157 million in 2006. In 2007, that figure had decreased by a further 6 per cent to 4.8453 million.
The figures are equally poor for the magazines aimed at news. Added together, The Bulletin, Money, Time Australia and BRW sold about 324,100 in 2001 and 267,00 in 2006. The 2007 figure for the four magazines is 249,000, a further decline of 6.7 per cent.