Sundays bear the brunt of newspaper circulation falls
Metropolitan Sunday papers have fallen almost 4% compared to the same period last year, according to the latest audit figures.
In comparison the metropolitan dailies (including Saturdays) fell 1.9%, while national Saturday papers grew 1.7%, mainly because of a 3% increase in News Limited’s The Weekend Australian.
Fairfax’s The Sunday Age in Melbourne and News Limited’s Sunday Territorian (Northern Territory), were the only Sunday papers to post increases, in the October to December Audit Bureau of Circulations figures year-on-year comparisons, with News’ West Australian Sunday Times posting the biggest loss with a fall of 5.8%.
Media buyers claim the falls are a result of the tougher economic climate and people holding back on discretionary items such as Sunday papers.
OMD’s head of print, Simon Davies, said these figures were a continuation of a trend which has been present in the last few audits.
Media buyers also put the drops down to a softening of real estate and employment markets that are normally a staple of the Saturday and Sunday paper advertising revenue.
News’ Adelaide Advertiser had the biggest falls out of the five major metros, falling 4.4% Monday to Friday and a 3.9% for the Saturday paper.
The West Australian and The Courier Mail also suffered falls, with some analysts citing the launch of new Fairfax owned websites in those locations as a possible cause.
Fairfax-owned Sydney Morning Herald and The Age were stable with 0.1% increase for both, while News’ Daily Telegraph and Herald Sun suffered losses in the Monday to Friday market with a 1.6% and 2.7% decline respectively.
Overall the metropolitan dailies Monday to Friday fell 2.1%, while metropolitan Saturdays fell 1.2%.
The gains made by The Australian and The Weekend Australian are partly due to a high level of marketing and promotion by News Limited according to media buyers, along with a higher than normal level of interest in national and international news, with events such as the US election garnering interest.
Nick Keenan, MediaCom’s head of non broadcast added: “We buy our papers from a localised point of view, but I think The Australian has done a good job at positioning itself in the market as a metro title on a national level. And their circulation continues to increase as a result.”
