Newspaper readership figures on slide again after brief rally

The figures come after a bounce when issues such as the federal election and Brexit boosted readership.

Tailing off

After several months of major international news stories, newspaper readership tailed off in ­August.

The figures come after a bounce a month earlier when issues such as the federal election, Brexit and ­terrorist attacks in ­Europe boosted readership at the nation’s major mastheads.

But while the August trend dented short-term growth, the weakness does not show up in the long term.

The Australian pushed weekday print readership 3.1 per cent higher compared to a year ago, and TheDaily Telegraph stabilised weekday print readership, up 0.6 per cent. Weekday title the Herald Sun remains the most read newspaper in Australia.

All three titles are published by News Corp Australia. Overall, News Corp reaches over 16.2 million people aged over 14 each month, according to official ­Enhanced Media Metric Aust­ralia data out today.

Combined, the weekly audience for News Corp’s national, metropolitan, and regional print papers is almost 7.7 million, meaning 42 per cent of Australians read at least one of the publisher’s paid newspapers each week. The readership results come after News Corp launched a new business unit ­focused on digital media as the company continues to embrace the online shift in a rapidly transforming publishing world.

Part of the move is an online vertical focused on the popular food category.

News Corp ­Australasia executive chairman Michael Miller said the report shows how “influential” the ­network is by reaching ­almost eight million people each month.

“The success of taste.com.au helps demonstrate the potential for Food Corp,” Mr Miller said. “Not only is taste.com.au the No 1 paid food magazine in the country with almost 800,000 readers per month, but it is also the fastest growing magazine, having experienced 29 per cent growth in the last 12 months.

“Not only does subsidiary company REA Group have the No 1 website and app but the Saturday real estate sectional readership has grown for each of the four metro mastheads, with an average weekly audience of 874,000, up 6.3 per cent compared to last year.”