With an audience of 5,653,000 in an average four weeks across print, online and app in the 12 months to March 2012, Fairfax’s Sydney Morning Herald is the country’s most-read newspaper brand, according to the Roy Morgan Research Readership Survey.

Two News Corp brands score audiences just shy of five million, with the Herald Sun (4,982,000) just pipping stablemate the Daily Telegraph (4,936,000).

Two more newspaper brands exceed the four million mark: The Age (4,227,000) and The Australian (4,040,000).

Roy Morgan Last 4 Weeks Total Masthead Readership

Source: Roy Morgan Single Source, April 2013 to March 2014. Masthead Readership includes print, web (PC, Mobile, Tablet) & App readership

Tim Martin, General Manager – Media, Roy Morgan Research, says:

“Roy Morgan Research has always had readership figures for ‘last four weeks’ available to clients. However we believed a ‘last seven days’ figure is a more practical and accurate way to tally Australians’ news consumption habits across media brands—so this is what we have publically released.

“However, with EMMA (and publishers) claiming ‘higher’ readership figures by comparing their ‘last four weeks’ figures with our ’last seven days’ results, we thought it was time for publishers, agencies and advertisers to compare apples with apples.

“Our newspaper readership data is used by all mainstream media agency groups as well as leading client brands in financial services, automotive, telecommunications, consumer goods and retail.”