APN drives readership growth

APN drives readership growth

APN newspapers have achieved outstanding growth in newspaper readership with the company’s flagship, The New Zealand Herald, becoming the fastest growing paid newspaper in New Zealand with a readership of 568,000.

This is an increase of 21,000 daily readers on the same period last year and 19,000 up on the previous six months.

The Herald increase accounted for most of the improvement in combined metropolitan daily newspaper readership across New Zealand, which was up 23,000 on last year.

The paper’s readership growth was driven by a strong year of product development. Monday readership was up 30,000 (5.6%) following the launch of the new, weekly business title, The Business, in February 2006 and the Thursday edition also showed strong growth with an increase of 48,000  (9.3%) driven by the re-launch of the Time Out entertainment guide in July 2006.

The Weekend Herald remains New Zealand’s best read newspaper with a readership of 631,000, an increase of 3,000 on the same period last year. The Weekend Herald has more than twice the readership of any other weekend title in Auckland and 290,000 more readers than its nearest rival in the Northern region.

Notably the Wednesday edition of the New Zealand Herald is now the second best read newspaper in the country [behind the Weekend Herald] with a readership of 601,000, an increase of 17,000 on the same period last year.

The Herald on Sunday is the fastest growing Sunday newspaper with a readership of 326,000, up 7,000 readers on the previous survey and is the best read Sunday newspaper in the valuable Auckland region with a readership of 203,000.

The Herald on Sunday continues to innovate with the launch of its new Sunday Insight section carrying in-depth news and interviews, the introduction of new columnists and a growth in property listings in its Sunday Homes supplement.

The response from buyers has been extremely positive with newspaper sales for the Herald on Sunday tracking ahead of business forecasts.  

The Aucklander continues to be Auckland’s best read weekly publication with a readership of 414,000 and is distributed to over 390,000 Auckland homes. With just one advertisement in the Wednesday edition of the New Zealand Herald and the Aucklander advertisers can reach 836,000 readers at the beginning of the shopping week.

The New Zealand Women’s Weekly has maintained its place as the most popular magazine in its category with a readership of 954,000 (AP10+) – an increase of 1,000 readers on the previous period.

APN’s other weekly magazine title, The New Zealand Listener, has recorded a readership of 284,000 while monthly youth title, Crème, continues to go from strength to strength with a readership of 129,000*, an increase of 12,000 on the same period last year.

Chief executive Martin Simons said “The strength of APN’s portfolio of titles and an enthusiastic reader response to our product development programme is highlighted by these positive results.

“We continue to deliver unrivalled value to both our advertisers and readers in the New Zealand market.”

ENDS

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