The latest emma (Enhanced Media Metrics Australia) readership figures are out, with no change to which titles are leading the newspaper and magazine categories. The stats also showed that three quarters of the Aussie population still read a newspaper.

For newspapers, The Sydney Morning Herald continued to grow its lead for overall monthly readership for print and digital in July, up 4.7 per cent to 6.36 million (2.09 million for print and 5.20 million for digital).

Despite coming in second, The Daily Telegraph saw a decline in overall readership, down 2.3 per cent to 4.53 million (2.77 million for print and 2.38 million for digital), while the Herald Sun also experienced a drop in readership – down 2.2 per cent to 4.15 million (2.66 million for print and 2.43 million for digital) – to round out the top three.

Commenting on the survey results, Fairfax Media’s Australian publishing media managing director, Allen Williams, said July was the fifth consecutive month that the group has achieved a cross-platform audience reach of more than 13 million – or 73 per cent of – Australians.

“The news agenda and the depth of journalism we offer is driving growth for our mastheads, with global and local events, including the US presidential campaign and the devastating Italian earthquake and, closer to home, ongoing political machinations and terror threats, resulting in strong reader engagement,” he said.

“This underlines the trust and value our audiences place in our mastheads.”

Williams noted that The Sydney Morning Herald recorded its highest monthly readership for this year in July, reaching 6.4 million people across print and digital, and strengthening its leadership position to 1.8 million more people than its nearest competitor.

“The Age also achieved its highest cross platform readership this year, reaching 3.6 million people across platforms, which is up 11 per cent.”

The emma data also revealed that newspapers are read by 13.6 million of Aussies, or 75 per cent, of the population.

NewsMediaWorks CEO Mark Hollands said the large number of consumers who still regularly engage with print demonstrates the trusted relationship they have with quality, influential journalism.

“Newspapers remain a powerful medium for reaching high-value consumers,” he said.

“Those who read 3-plus copies of a newspaper per week earn an average of 20 per cent more than those who do not read print newspapers.

“This figure increases to 27 per cent for heavy newspaper readers, who read 7-plus copies a week.”

Meanwhile, news media is consumed on digital devices by more than seven in 10 Aussies, or 13.3 million of the adult population, according to the figures.

Accessing news, information and entertainment journalism on smartphones, tablets and laptops/PCs continues to grow, with 73 per cent of people using digital devices for news media.

Across print and digital, news media readership was 16.9 million in July, reaching 93 per cent of the adult population.

In the magazine brand category, Taste.com.au’s huge web readership of 3.87 million continued to drive its overall lead with 4.41 million (down from 4.45 million in June), while Woman’s Day once again came off second best with an overall readership of 3.23 million (2.91 million for print and 414,000 for digital) – up from 3.17 million.

New Idea led all magazines for total monthly print readership with 2.82 million, and finished third overall with 2.93 million readers.