Roy Morgan Readership results for NZ Newspapers & Magazines

Monday, 7 September 2015, 11:37 am
Press Release: Roy Morgan Research

Roy Morgan Readership results for New Zealand Newspapers and Magazines for June 2015

Roy Morgan Research today releases the latest New Zealand Print Readership results for Newspapers and Magazines in the 12 months to June 2015.

Newspapers

Nationally, Monday to Saturday readership of the Dominion Post rose 3.8% to 274,000—a gain of 10,000 readers per average issue. However the New Zealand Herald remains the country’s most-read daily newspaper with 589,000 readers (down 3.3%).

On North Island, readership of the Gisborne Herald grew 22.7% while the Wanganui Chronicle and Manawatu Standard also gained readers compared with the previous year to June 2014. The Waikato Times, Northern Advocate, Bay of Plenty Times and Hawkes Bay Today each declined by fewer than 2,000 readers, but the Daily Post and Taranaki Daily News both declined by over 20%.

The Press on South Island is virtually unchanged with 213,000 readers (down 0.9%), with the Otago Daily Times also faring well with 102,000 readers (down 1.9%). Southland Times and Nelson Mail lost readers but the Timaru Herald gained 5,000, a 20.0% gain.

On Sundays, the Sunday Star Times is down less than 1.4% to 415,000 readers—a solid result compared with the number two Sunday paper,Herald on Sunday, down 11.3% to 290,000 readers. But the day’s most-improved is the Sunday News, up 2.6% to 118,000 readers.

Magazines

Stand-out performers among the country’s most-read magazines include Mindfood (up 43.3% to 149,000 readers per average issue), Next (up 18.4% to 148,000), Cuisine (up 10.0% to 198,000) and NZ Listener (up 6.5% to 213,000).

AA Directions remains the most-read magazine with 503,000 readers per average issue (down 1.6%). NZ Woman’s Day is the top mass women’s magazine (down 11.3% to 378,000), but the Australian Women’s Weekly’s NZ edition has overtaken the NZ Woman’s Weekly to nab second spot in the category with 253,000 and 250,000 readers respectively.

Gardening magazines are becoming more popular, with almost identical proportional gains for NZ Gardener (up 32.8% to 89,000) and Weekend Gardener (up 32.7% to 73,000).

John La Rosa, Client Service New Zealand, Roy Morgan Research, says:

“New Zealand’s newspapers and magazines are performing well overall within a difficult global downturn for print media.

“Many magazines are also doing great work and growing their readership, especially in the Home and Garden and Food and Entertainment categories. Although we’re spending more and more time in front of screens— scrolling and searching, navigating links and trying not to get distracted—the enduring and future success of print magazines is that they are a pleasurable antidote to the barrage of digital. For many Kiwis, no matter how old or young, swiping on a tablet will never be as enjoyable as turning a glossy hard-copy page.”

ENDS

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Roy Morgan Research

New Zealand's leading social and market research company

A full service research organisation specialising in omnibus and syndicated data, Roy Morgan Research has over 70 years' experience in collecting objective, independent information on consumers. Roy Morgan Research was set up in New Zealand in the 1990s and has been collecting information across a wide range of industries in New Zealand ever since. Roy Morgan currently has over 10 years of trended data on a geographically and demographically representative sample of over 12,000 New Zealanders aged 14+.

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