Readership surges for The Australian on both digital and print mediums

The Australian is the only major newspaper masthead in the country to have increased its cross-platform in the first three months of 2025.

The Australian is growing its readership across both the electronic and print mediums.

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The Australian is the only major newspaper masthead in the country to have increased its cross-platform (print and digital) audience in the first three months of 2025, reinforcing the national title’s reputation as the favoured destination for in-depth political coverage.

The latest newspaper and magazine audience data, released by media industry body ThinkNewsBrands on Monday, show The Australian attracted 33,000 new readers in the three months to March 31 this year – a period dominated by global news and domestic politics.

“This year has been defined by big, significant stories, including President Trump’s fast and furious first hundred days in office and a federal election campaign,” said editor-in-chief Michelle Gunn.

“At times like this, Australians want premium journalism – the high-quality, sharp reporting and expert analysis that our masthead provides.”

Over the same 3-month period, Nine Entertainment saw its metro titles, The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, shed 122,000 and 115,000 cross-platform readers respectively, while the company’s business tabloid, The Australian Financial Review, recorded a drop in audience of 14,000.

The Australian’s editor-in-chief, Michelle Gunn.

Elsewhere, The West Australian registered a 4.1 per cent slump in its readership.

The quarter’s readership figures showcase a new form of audience measurement data that is endorsed by the industry’s two primary research companies, Roy Morgan and Ipsos Australia.

“Roy Morgan Single Source provides a deep and holistic view of audience behaviour, attitudes and preferences while Ipsos iris data has become the industry endorsed digital audience measure,” said Vanessa Lyons, chief executive officer of ThinkNewsBrands.

The new data set will be referred to as Roy Morgan Iris.

In terms of The Australian’s dedicated print audience, the national broadsheet enjoyed a 4.8 per cent bump over the past 12 months – the second highest rate of annual print growth of any of the nation’s major weekday mastheads, behind The Age.

The Sunday Telegraph remains the most popular newspaper in Australia overall, with an average of 764,000 readers per edition (down 10.2 per cent on the previous year).

Its main rival in NSW, the Nine-owned Sun Herald, has an average issue audience of 359,000 (down 15.7 per cent, year-on-year).

The Weekend Australian is the nation’s most-read masthead on Saturdays, with an average issue readership of 648,000.

The Herald Sun remains the most read weekday newspaper in the nation, with the Victorian title boosting its audience by 1.8 per cent over the past year.

The Australian Weekend Magazine lifted its readership over the past 12 months, while the Good Weekend magazine, which is attached to the Saturday editions of the SMH and The Age, lost ground over the same period.