Newspaper readers lose the Sunday habit
Whatever Australians do on a Sunday, it doesn’t involve reading as much as they used to – or that appears to be the message in the latest set of newspaper circulation figures.
According to January-March numbers from the Audit Bureau of Circulation, Sunday newspaper sales are down in virtually every state compared to the same period in 2008.
The biggest fall was in West Australia where News Ltd’s Sunday Times lost 3.9% of its sales, falling to 321,200 copies.
In NSW the situation was almost as bad. News Ltd’s Sunday Telegraph editor Neil Breen – whose credibility took a knock over the Pauline Hanson fake photos furore – saw his newspaper lose 2.7% of its sales, falling to 651,872 copies. However things were even worse for Fairfax rival the Sun-Herald, which lost 4%, falling to 480,000 copies.
In Queensland, News Ltd’s Sunday Mail lost 2.9% of its sales, down to 559,114 copies. In SA, the Sunday Mail was down 3.6%; in Tasmania, the Sunday Tasmanian fell 0.4%.
The only even vaguely bright spot for Sundays was in Victoria, where Fairfax’s Sunday Age put on 0.5%. News Ltd rival the Sunday Herald Sun lost 0.7%.
There was also bad news for Fairfax’s Australian Financial Review. Its weekday sales saw the biggest fall of any newspaper – down 6.5% to 82,764.
However, the AFR’s News Ltd rival The Australian did better – with a weekday increase in readership of 3.6% to 138,765.
There was also a positive sign for Kerry Stokes. The West Australian, which he took effective control of earlier this year, appears to have reversed its decline as the paper improves its relationship with newsagents. Its weekday sale was up 1.6%.
Meanwhile, News Ltd has dropped another heavy hint that it has major changes ahead. Today’s Australian quotes chairman John Hartigan as flagging up new initiatives to increase newspaper readership and drive traffic to the masthead websites. He said:
“The projects involve a potentially radical overhaul of everything we do.”
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Is it that we are losing our sunday reading habit? Or choosing to read the saturday papers on sunday. I can’t stand the content of Sunday papers…
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Are these actual newspaper sales or newspaper distribution figures – ie including free copies as well?
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That figure includes frees, Ben
People aren’t reading them because they’re crap.
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that’s weird Megan, as the same ‘crap’ is very popular with the mastheads online properties. News is a massive category online.
so what’s the issue here – is it the crap content or the crap medium?
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So every Sunday newspaper except The Sunday Age dropped in sales, and several of those drops were in the range of 2-3%.
Is there a message in this – that people are willing to stick with a quality Sunday read rather than the same old serving of A Tabloid For All The Family?
We media types do tend to be a little insular and focused on what appeals to us, but I’d certainly welcome The Sun Herald being more like a Sunday edition of the SMH rather than trying to mimic The Sunday Tele.
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This is an interesting trend. Five years ago we all thought weekend newspapers would perform better because people had more leisure time.
It could reflect lifestyle changes, especially in WA where people are more likely to work weekends, and content.
I remember reading the Sunday Press and the Sunday Observer (Victoria) as a kid. They were pretty ordinary and if there hadn’t been six VFL games the day before they wouldn’t have sold at all.
Today’s offerings aren’t much better compared with their Saturday sisters.
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“The only even vaguely bright spot for Sundays was in Victoria”. Really?
According to the official Audit Bureau Figures, the Sunday Territorian was the fastest growing title of all – including dailies and Saturdays – for the January-March period.
The below report appeared on P3 of Saturday’s Northern Territory News.
THE Sunday Territorian is officially the fastest growing paper in the country.
The Northern Territory News’ daily and Saturday papers were also both among the country’s top five fastest growing titles for the three months to March.
According to circulation figures released on Friday, the Sunday Territorian has increased its sales by 4.1 per cent, or more than 860 copies a week, compared with the same period last year.
This comes as the figures showed Sunday papers made up five of the 10 worst performing publications in the country.
Sunday papers have suffered a massive hit in the past 12 months, with an overall decline of 2.4 per cent, or just over 63,000 copies a week.
The only exception to the decline was the Sunday Territorian.
The Saturday edition of the Northern Territory News came in fourth, with an increase of 3 per cent, or 917 copies, compared with the same period last year.
The weekday edition increased sales by 2.5 per cent, or 517 copies.
The Weekend Australian came in second at 3.7 per cent, followed by The Australian at 3.6 per cent.
The Northern Territory News, The Australian and The Townsville Bulletin all showed growth every day of the week.
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Jack, you make a very interesting point. A few years ago there was a convergence of factors — technology, market developments, fresh editorial ideas from highly professional staff with a handle on the zeitgeist, etc etc — available to The Sun-Herald, most of which tended to your view: that we would be better off surrendering the tired old populist formula to The Sunday Telegraph while the SH tried to develop a unique, intellectually powerful identity for a Sunday edition.
Unfortunately the then CEO, McKinsey guru Fred Hilmer (still vice-chancellor of the University of NSW, I believe), who tacitly admitted to a bewilderment about print media that he never quite surmounted, was effectively “captured” by self-serving executives who played him off a break. The SH was refused the resources that may have created a vibrant, digital-media savvy publication with broad appeal.
End of story. Ancient history, perhaps, but thta’s how these things happen.
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