A total of 16.8 million Australians, or nine in 10 consumers, read news media in January 2017, according to the latest emma (Enhanced Media Metrics Australia) data.

With a total 13.4 million readers, print continues to be the preferred platform for readers of news media, while 13 million people accessed news media via their smartphone, tablet, laptop or PC.

The data showed that metro newspapers were read by 11.2 million people, or 61 per cent of consumers, during the January period, while 7.1 million people (39 per cent) read a regional or community newspaper.

Regional newspapers were read by 3.2 million people (or 18 per cent aged 14-plus), while community newspapers were read by 4.1 million (or 22 per cent aged 14-plus).

News media readers across platforms are also keen online shoppers, with 7.8 million (47 per cent) shopping online in the last week.

More than half of digital readers (52 per cent or 6.7 million) and 45 per cent of newspaper readers shopped online in the last week, compared to only 39 per cent of non-readers.

According to the emma data for the 12 months to January 2017, The Sydney Morning Herald is Australia’s highest-reaching title across all platforms with 5.4 million readers, followed by The Daily Telegraph (4.3 million readers) and the Herald Sun (4.1 million).

emma cross-platform readership (000s, last four weeks)	January 2017
The Sydney Morning Herald / smh.com.au	5,359
The Daily Telegraph / thetelegraph.com.au	4,335
Herald Sun / heraldsun.com.au	4,137
The Age / theage.com.au	3,203
Courier-Mail / couriermail.com.au	2,886
The Australian / theaustralian.com.au	2,836
The West Australian / thewest.com.au^	1,647
The Australian Financial Review / afr.com.au	1,543
Adelaide Advertiser / AdelaideNow.com.au	1,491
The Sunday Times / perthnow.com.au	1,393
The Canberra Times / canberratimes.com.au	891
Newcastle Herald / theherald.com.au	639
Sunshine Coast Daily / sunshinecoastdaily.com.au	487
Gold Coast Bulletin / goldcoast.com.au	453
Mercury (Tasmania) / themercury.com.au	391

 

^NB: With the recent release of Nielsen’s digital ratings (monthly), thewest.com.au’s mobile and tablet audience is under-represented. This is a result of restrictions in Nielsen’s methodology being able to capture iOS mobile secure sessions (HTTPS) due to privacy restrictions inherent to the operating system. This gap will be addressed by Nielsen with the launch of digital content ratings in the coming months.

*Source: emma, 12 months to January 2017. Readership based on last four weeks. Trends compared with 12 months to January 2016. Survey conducted by Ipsos MediaCT, people 14+, Nielsen digital ratings (monthly), January 2017. The emma data for the 12 months to January 2017 includes the new Nielsen digital ratings monthly. This replaces the previous digital currency, Nielsen online ratings. Due to this change of methodology, there is a trend break in the data that means digital audience comparisons to previous periods are not valid.