ABCs – newspapers: The ‘worst newspaper audit on record’
Sun Herald: Down 22.9 per cent
Sales of newspapers took a nasty tumble across the sector in the latest round of circulation figures.
Fairfax Media was hit hardest, but the company was unwilling to speak on the record about its performance; instead it issued a statement that focused on ‘total masthead sales’ – the combined print and digital sales, without differentiating between the two.
The company said that a combined figure is the only true measure of a newspaper brand’s performance, as it increasingly focuses on digital growth.
The Sydney Morning Herald was down 14.5 per cent to 157,931 daily sales, Melbourne’s The Age fell 14.5 per cent to 157,480 copies, The Sun Herald plummeted 22.9 per cent to 313,477 and The Sunday Age dropped 14 per cent to 191,139.
News Limited titles such as Sydney’s Daily Telegraph fell a comparatively small 4.1 per cent to 333,424, Melbourne’s Herald Sun was down 4.7 per cent to a still healthy 472,444 copies, Sydney’s Sunday Telegraph was down 3.2 per cent and the Melbourne’s Sunday Herald Sun dropped 5.7 per cent to 514,671.
Fairfax’s strategy has been to focus on ditching giveaway copies and increasing cover price to drive profitability rather than reach.
Steve Allen from media consultancy Fusion Strategy said it was the worst newspaper audit on record, but noted digital continued to grow in “all dimensions”.
News Limited CEO Kim Williams said despite the declines, printed newspapers remain an extremely effective advertising medium.
“The ABC data also shows that Australians continue to love the printed medium with News Limited selling 11 million newspapers a week – more than any publisher in Australia,” he said.
“Our Sunday newspaper network is read by 4.7 million Australians every week – the biggest single day audience in the country of any medium. When you compare it with big television events such as The Voice winner announcement, which attracted 4.4 million TV viewers nationally, you will see the true power of our Sunday network.”
Industry body The Newspaper Works, like Fairfax, zeroed in on combined digital publishing and printed sales, which it said saw gains for most mastheads.
But the body’s CEO Tony Hale highlighted that print newspaper sales are still enormous. “Australians continue to buy more than 18 million newspapers every week, and although the bulk of these are still print editions, we are also now seeing the strengthening influence of digital purchases on the overall sales figures,” he said.
WEEKEND METRO PAPERS
WEEKDAY METRO PAPERS
NATIONAL PAPERS
There will be a full breakdown and analysis of the ABC figures in Encore later today.
Funny that. Fairfax CEO spends much time announcing digital intent and demise of print. And there it is. The man is a genius. Oddly he does not yet seem to have announced the excellent business results of this strategy. Maybe next week. LOL
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When quality is downgraded circulation follows. Unless the newspapers start to increase the quality of the product circulations will continue to decline and so too will web site traffic.
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it’s fixable I reckon
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Excuse my ignorance, but can someone explain (in simple terms) how the Herald Sun can have a -4.73% circ drop resulting in -11.1% readership drop, yet the Advertiser has a -5.57% circ drop resulting in +1.8% readership increase. Readership data is from Roy Morgan and doesn’t include digital.
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Apparently part of this decline can be explained by the fact that a crackdown in audit rules means papers can no longer count “discounted” paper sales to hotels. Which probably means it is a more honest indication of the true circulation figures anyway.
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Good news is the audit of Town Criers remains flat however the latest data on the Carrier Pigeon market penetration continues to decline.
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The country’s powerhouse state of WA is the only state to support GROWTH in its weekend paper The Weekend West. Swimming against the tide. Worth a mention by Mumbrella surely? Also a reason for national advertisers to consider commitments and not write off across the newsprint category, especially in WA. Unashamedly submitted by WA News where great journalism continues to sell great newspapers.
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Hi Sue,
If I gave special mention to the 1.3% increase in the title’s Saturday circulation, I should probably also point out the 5.1%% decline in its sales the other five days of the week it publishes.
Cheers,
Tim – Mumbrella
Love the news ltd comparison of their Sunday paper ‘reach’ of 4.7 mil, to the Voice’s average audience… Talk about comparing apples to oranges!
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“Unashamedly submitted by WA News where great journalism continues to sell great newspapers.”
One interpretation is that WA is about 10 years behind the rest of the country…
Without disputing the claim to great journalism, it isn’t going to save papers in the same way morse code isn’t used to pass news anymore. Technology.
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Hi Tim, An increase in a significant Masthead is still an increase not to be overlooked. Sue
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Now I know why the IGA stores in my area have bundles of free West Australian newspapers lying all over their stores all day Sunday _ they must count them in their circulation to claim an increase!
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Hi Sue!
Great troll to plug your cause. The real way to plug your cause, is to make your cause do the pluggin for ya! Ya hear me Sue? 😉
(Do they speak Texan in WA?)
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