Sales ease in soft news period

Australian newspaper sales eased in the March 2010 quarter, a period of news that was generally soft, especially compared with the first three months of last year when a series of major news events helped drive Australian newspaper circulation. 

Figures released today by the Audit Bureau of Circulations show sales of Monday to Sunday metropolitan newspapers fell by 3% in the three months ending March 31, 2010, compared with the corresponding period in 2009.

Nevertheless, Australians continued to buy 20 million newspapers every week in the latest quarter, a figure which The Newspaper Works CEO Tony Hale described as “very significant relative to the total Australian population”.

“The early months of last year were punctuated by some of the more momentous news events of the decade,” Hale said.

“Circulation during that period was stronger because, as we’ve seen so often, Australians turn to newspapers in tough times or when there is news of great significance,” he added.

Between January and March 2009, major news events at home included the Victorian bushfires  and the Federal Government’s household stimulus package in response to the Global Financial Crisis, then at its peak.

Overseas, the inauguration on January 20 of US President Barack Obama produced a surge in newspaper sales in Australia.

“These three events generated enormous interest and helped drive newspaper sales. By contrast, the first three months of 2010 have not produced stories of the same magnitude and as a result we’ve seen, not surprisingly, slightly lower results,” Hale said.

Hale also pointed to the latest circulation data as further evidence that Australian newspapers were outperforming their US and UK counterparts over the long term. 

In the US, sales of weekday newspapers in the six months to March 2010 dropped by 8.7%*, while in the UK, circulation in the same period fell 4.5%**.

“Australian newspaper circulations continue to perform well against international sales trends,” Hale said.

Sources:  
* Audit Bureau of Circulations (US), circulation of weekday newspapers for the six months to March 31, 2010
** Audit Bureau of Circulations (UK), circulation of national daily newspapers for the six months to March 31, 2010