The Sydney Morning Herald retains crown as nation’s most-read masthead

The Sydney Morning Herald continues to hold its long-running title as Australia’s most-read masthead, attracting a cross-platform readership of more than 7 million, fresh Roy Morgan figures have revealed.

The numbers were driven by the Walkley Award-winning investigative series Building Bad, the masthead’s Olympics and Paralympics coverage and news of two assassination attempts on Donald Trump, which have also pushed subscriber figures higher.

The Sydney Morning Herald maintains its title as the country’s most-read masthead.Credit: Wolter Peeters

At 7.05 million readers in the 12 months to September, this means about one in three Australians choose to read the Herald, putting it ahead of competitor The Daily Telegraph, which had 4 million.

The Herald’s Monday to Friday print edition notched average reader numbers of 386,000, while the Saturday paper recorded 472,000 readers.

Victoria’s The Age has a national readership of 4.55 million, ahead of competitor the Herald Sun by 450,000.

“Last week’s haul of 11 Walkley Awards recognised the commitment we have to exposing corruption and neglect, from the union movement to the spread of toxic ‘forever chemicals’ in the water supply,” said executive editor Luke McIlveen.

“These are the biggest national stories of the year, but Herald and Age editors Bevan Shields and Patrick Elligett have built our growing subscription business by breaking news that affects their cities – from the housing crisis gripping Sydney and Melbourne to the failures of the justice system in NSW and Victoria.”

Good Food, published by the Herald and The Age, has total readership of 1.62 million, a 76 per cent increase on last year.

Traveller has grown 15 per cent in the past quarter to 1.47 million readers and Good Weekend reaches 684,000 people on average. Sunday Life and Domain each notched a 3 per cent increase for the quarter to 368,000 and 469,000 respectively.

Put together, all the mastheads under Nine’s publishing arm – the Herald, The Age, The Australian Financial Review, WA Today and Brisbane Times – reach an audience of nearly 16 million.

The Business Briefing newsletter delivers major stories, exclusive coverage and expert opinion. Sign up to get it every weekday morning.