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Majority of top 10 NZ newspapers increased audience in 2021: Roy Morgan

The latest market research by Roy Morgan has shown significant growth of total cross-platform audience for the majority of New Zealand’s top 10 newspapers in 2021.

2.9 million, or 69.5%, of New Zealanders aged 14 or older now read or access newspapers in an average seven day period, either through print or online using a website or app. Additionally, nearly 1.8 million, or 42.5% of New Zealanders aged 14 or older read magazines either in print or online either using the web or an app.

The findings were derived from the Roy Morgan New Zealand Single Source survey of 6,514 New Zealanders aged 14 and older over the 12 months to December 2021.

The leading performer over the year was the New Zealand Herald, with a total cross-platform audience of 1,844,000 in the year to December in 2021.

Stuff.co.nz retained its’ position as New Zealand’s leading news website for those on the lookout for the latest news, bringing together newspapers the Dominion Post, The Press and Sunday Star-Times, and magazines such as the TV Guide and NZ Gardener.

The total digital audience for Stuff in an average seven days is over .75 million New Zealanders, which is up nearly 40,000 on the year before, and remains over 200,000 ahead of main rival NZHerald.co.nz on 1.55 million.

Six of the top ten titles grew their total cross-platform audiences in 2021, with the Otago Daily Times leading the charge with a growth of 50,000 or 20% to achieve an audience of 304,000. The Northern Advocate was up 35,000 (33%) to an audience of 142,000 and the Taranaki Daily News audience grew by 31,000 (29.7%) to an audience of 137,000.

Other newspapers to increase their total cross-platform audiences in 2021 included Hawke’s Bay Today, which grew 19,000 (12.4%) to 173,000; Bay of Plenty Times, up 4,000 (35) to 149,000 and Waikato Times, up 2,000 (0.9%) to 195,000

Audiences losses amongst the remaining top 10 were minor, with the Dominion Post in second place overall with an audience of 408,000 readers ahead of The Press in fourth place on 272,000 followed by the Sunday Star-Times on 216,000.

At the magazine level, there was less growth seen across the board.

The weekly New Zealand Listener was temporarily suspended from publication in 2020 due to a sharp drop in avenue thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the magazine was relaunched later in the year and experienced impressive growth in 2021, up by 36,000 to an average issue readership of 221,000.

Despite it’s improvement, the New Zealand Listener only achieved second place, following New Zealand’s most widely read magazine AA Directions, which has an average issue readership of 374,000 in 2021, up 9000 on the previous year.

Strong results were also seen for NZ House & Garden, which increased its readership by 18,000 to 110,000; Habitat, which grew its readership by 10,000 to 100,000; and Dish, up 3,000 to 92,000.

Other widely read magazines included TV Guide with a readership of 157,000, NZ Woman’s Day on 146,000, Australian Women’s Weekly (NZ Edition) on 141,000, NZ Woman’s Weekly unchanged on 105,000 and NZ Gardener on 93,000.

Women’s lifestyle and fashion magazines experienced significant growth in 2021 with Mindfood up 2,000 to 80,000, Simply You Living, up 26,000 to 50,000, NZ Fashion Quarterly, up 20,000 to 50,000 and Fashion, up 20,000 to 50,000.

These are the latest results from the Roy Morgan New Zealand Single Source, following the results to June 2021.

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