The Daily Mail and Sky News were the star performers in Roy Morgan’s total news readership report, having grown their readership by 21 per cent and 15.6 per cent, respectively.
The Daily Mail and Sky News saw readership skyrocket in the period from July 2023 to July 2024. The overall sector saw 2.6 per cent growth, with 97 per cent of Aussies engaging in news content.
ThinkNewsBrands, the industry body for news publishing groups, said that the sector was “deeply ingrained” in Australians’ lives with 21.7m readers aged 14+ and nine in ten engaged by up to four different titles every month.
Put into perspective, more Aussies read news every week than the number who drink coffee or milk, showing how entrenched news is in Australians’ lives. These huge audience numbers demonstrate that advertisers can practically target any audience they wish via total news publishing.
“Yet again the Roy Morgan data shows just how vast the reach of total news publishing really is proving that advertisers can use it to access any audience they’re after,” said ThinkNewsBrands CEO, Vanessa Lyons.
“Audiences aren’t scrolling past news, they’re accessing multiple news brands and content categories every month with repeated interactions. ‘News readers’ is the highly engaged, attentive audience advertisers are looking for.
Continuing to seek out news in a cost-of-living crisis really proves the importance Australians place on it. It also signifies the habitual relationship readers have with news and the reliable, regular, deeply engaged audiences it can provide advertisers,” added Lyons.
“At a time when ROI has never been more important, the data shows news delivers the prosperous and ready-to-buy audiences that can make marketing campaigns a success”.
Despite a cost-of-living crisis, less than 1 per cent of news readers stopped paying for access in the last quarter, highlighting the resilient and habitual relationship readers have with news. By comparison, according to National Australia Bank data, 37 per cent of Australians cut back on a streaming service in the March quarter and 33 per cent on subscriptions for magazines, apps, and other goods and products.
Total news publishing audiences are valuable for advertisers, with high-net-worth Australians 28 per cent more likely to read the news and paying news readers 25 per cent more likely to be big spenders.
Australians engage with multiple news publishing titles and categories. The Roy Morgan data showed that 91 per cent read up to four titles every month and while general news remains the most read category at 93 per cent of the population, there is high readership across other categories. In fact, 64 per cent engage with at least three categories in any given month.
49 per cent of the population read the entertainment and culture category, a number that might be surprising to some, as the category is one generally thought to be diminishing in popularity and importance across readers.
Exploration into audience profiles reveals the high value that news reader audiences represent to advertisers. The data shows that high net-worth Australians ($1m+ in total savings and/or investments) are 28 per cent more likely to read the news than the average Australian. It also shows that paying news readers are 24 per cent more likely than the general population to be homeowners, more likely to experiment with new products and services, and 25 per cent more likely to be big spenders. This data signifies the high ROI qualities of news reader audiences.
The Sydney Morning Herald remains the most-read masthead nationally. In Victoria, The Age remains the most-read masthead.
