Mobile Continues Strong Growth For News Media Readership In 2015: emma Data

Smartphones remain the fastest growing platform for news media in 2015, with readership on mobiles up 8 per cent year on year to 3.6 million, according to the latest emma (Enhanced Media Metrics Australia) data released today.

Readership of news media across digital platforms remains strong at 11.6 million. While smartphone readership leads the growth across these platforms, tablet readership is steady at 3 million readers and 9.8 million readers accessed newspapers on PC and laptop.

Total readership for regional mastheads is up 6 per cent and readership of community mastheads across all platforms remains steady, up 1 per cent. Total newspaper media readership is 16.4 million.

Despite digital’s ongoing growth, print is still the preferred medium for newspaper readers, with 13.8 million people reading print mastheads in November.

The November emma data also finds that newspaper readers continue to be a more valuable audience than non-readers, with average personal incomes 30 per cent higher than non-readers and average household incomes 20 per cent higher than those of non-readers.

“The growth in newspaper readership on smartphones shows no signs of stopping, as newspaper publishers continue to innovate the way they deliver news via mobile, and audiences are responding to this. I expect we’ll see this trend continue well into 2016,” The Newspaper Works CEO Mark Hollands said.

“Despite the ongoing growth of digital, print newspaper readership remains strong, with 77 per cent of Australians reading a print newspaper every month. This means that readers are accessing news content via a range of platforms depending on where they are.

“The November data also highlights the value of newspaper audiences for advertisers, as newspaper readers earn incomes significantly higher than people who don’t read newspapers.”

According to the emma data to November 2015, The Sydney Morning Herald finished as Australia’s highest reaching title across platforms (4.9 million readers). The Herald Sun followed on 4.117 million and The Daily Telegraph with 4.116 million. 

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