Circulation Apr-Jun 2012
Australians continue to buy $18.4 million newspapers despite tough economic times; $1.2b spent each year on newspaper.
Australians are still turning to newspapers for credible news, analysis and opinion with 18.4 million newspapers purchased every week and Australians spending $1.2b* on newspapers each year.
However, the tough economy and structural changes in publishers’ businesses saw national, metropolitan and regional newspaper circulation Monday-Saturday fall by 5.7% year-on-year in the July – June 2012 audit period.
The Newspaper Works CEO Tony Hale said despite the fall, there had never been more Australians reading newspapers in both a printed and digital form.
“The fact that 18.4 million copies of newspapers are sold each week supports the assertion that there is a strong future for the printed newspapers in Australia. There is a lot of life in the printed product yet. Some markets are still showing very strong results,” Hale said.
Hale added that the circulation data is only a partial measurement of the audience of newspapers with publishers implementing digital strategies to capture audiences in print, online, on mobiles and tablets.
Audit Bureau of Circulation rules changed recently to allow for the reporting of publishers’ paid digital sales and total paid masthead sales, the latter encompassing sales across print and digital.
“We can see the success of the digital strategies and new business models the publishers are implementing. The reported metropolitan digital sales show quarter on quarter growth of 64% which is very encouraging,” Hale said.
Publishers are taking a range of different approaches to digital products with some making a more accelerated conversion to digital subscription models.
See full circulation data below.
* PWC Entertainment & Media Outlook 2012-2016
August 2012