More people sharing hard copies of mags and papers now than a year ago suggests EMMA
The hard copy of almost every major newspaper and magazine in Australia is being passed between more readers now than this time last year, according to the first year on year readership data from newspaper industry funded Enhanced Media Metrics Australia (EMMA).
An analysis of 46 titles in today’s EMMA data by Mumbrella shows that the number of readers per copy (RPC) has risen for all but four of the titles, whilst 24 have actually increased their readership in the past 12 months. Meanwhile circulation was down for all but three of the newspaper and magazine titles analysed, as of the last available Audit Bureau of Circulation numbers, for the year to March 2014.
Some of the most notable changes include:
- The Age rising from 5.22 RPC to 6.23 RPC, despite circulation falling 17.92 per cent
- Zoo Weekly rising from 9.44 RPC to 15.24 RPC, despite a circulation decline of 36.36 per cent
- Northern Territory News readership climbing from 64,000 to 70,000 Monday to Friday despite circulation decline of 11.65 per cent
- The Daily Telegraph gaining 18,000 readers for the Monday to Friday editions, despite losing 9.49 per cent in circulation
The EMMA data, which shows changes year-on-year up to June 2014, has been released five days ahead of the next Audit Bureau of Circulation figures which cover the period from March to June 2014, and are expected to show more circulation declines for print newspapers and magazines.
In the face of terminal decline of magazines, LET’S CLAIM PEOPLE ARE PASSING THEM AROUND MORE.
Seems legit.
It’s just proves that the numbers are being manipulated to suit the publishers.
Call me cynical, but a print media measurement system, funded by the print media industry may just have a teeny tiny bit of vested interest driving the results they publish.
So, its not real shock that readership numbers are “up” given they are unable to play around with audited circulation figures…..or is that just me?
And nuggets of wisdom like this by way of explanation….
“….as people sharing magazines more in times of economic restraint”
Sorry Mr Zavecz, but I think you may be clutching at some rather weathered straws with that one.
I am not sure how clearer the picture can be – and this is most definitely NOT new news: print is a dying media. People are moving online.
It dos not matter how you cut your numbers. This is an unavoidable fact.
Completely preposterous to claim that the Monday to Friday readership is larger than the Saturday for these major dailies. There is without doubt a fault in the survey. I can believe that there are 107,000 people reading at least one M-F edition of the Canberra Times over the course of a week but there is absolutely no way it is the average number each day. So if you treat the five editions of M-F as one publication then sure it makes sense but individually? Pah! So do we assume Monday to Friday advertising rates will go up? Or will Saturday rates come down?!
Quite fascinating – the Australian Bureau of Statistics reports that there are an average of 2.6 people per household (that is, of all people of all ages including children), as at the 2011 Population Census.
For the Age to have 6.23 readers per copy of the printed newspaper, then each copy must be shared with two and a third households on average (probably 2.5 households if children are not surveyed).
Doesn’t happen in my neighbourhood and would be surprised if it happens in other neighbourhoods.
Does the readers per copy measure instead relate to somebody passing their copy around the entire office staff?
Again, haven’t seen that very often.
And certainly on the trains into the city, almost no one is reading a printed newspaper. Possibly an online version, though from the foot-tapping and closed eyes, assumed it was more likely to be music.
One would really have to question these results.
Note: The Age is only mentioned as an example and the analogy applies to the rest of the newspapers.
It is possible that in hairdresser/coffee shop/Dr.s waiting rooms environs, there could be a higher actual readership of the printed copies, though again questions about which particular issue was read, as opposed to any issue being read, would seem reasonable.
Overall, the findings would appear to be optimistic and a clearer explanation of the methodology used to show how they are accurate results would be helpful.
They could have at least made up believable figures.
I often take a copy of maxim to the dunny in the office, and leave it by the loo for the next gent to peruse. Do 6.28 gents read it and are they less engaged? Doubt it and probably.
DT circ goes down and readership goes up?
Sounds legit.