SMH remains the most-read Australian news brand: ThinkNewsBrands, Roy Morgan
Nine Entertainment Co-owned masthead The Sydney Morning Herald (SMH) remained the most-read news brand in Australia, according to the latest Roy Morgan and ThinkNewsBrands figures, albeit with fewer monthly readers than the previous survey period.
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Following SMH’s 8.1 million monthly readers, is its Victorian sister masthead, The Age, was the second most-read news brand with 5.6 million readers.
News Corp Australia’s The Herald Sun and broadsheet The Australian followed with 4.3 million monthly readers respectively.
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This survey period examined the 12 months to December 2022. It shows that Total News readership was down 0.5% compared to the same period in 2021 to 20.6 million in a four-week period.
Total News represents all news brands across print and digital, alongside standalone news websites. Overall, Total News reached 97% of the population over the age of 14 during this period.
ThinkNewsBrands general manager, Vanessa Lyons, said: “The latest Total News readership figures demonstrate how much of a deeply ingrained daily habit news is in the lives of Australians; news has a consistent and enduring appeal for most of the population.
“The figures underscore the importance of news, particularly during challenging economic times when trustworthy and reliable information is crucial.”
SMH’s editor, Bevan Shields, said: “Against a backdrop of a cost of living crisis and a touch of news fatigue affecting all publishers, The Sydney Morning Herald has more than held its own. These figures again demonstrate the quality of the Herald’s journalism and the special role we have in people’s daily lives.”
Methodology: Roy Morgan’s media survey has a sample size of 44,000. Print data is collected via survey and digital data is collected using a combination of survey data and an online panel that passively measures website and app visitation. This digital audience data is then calibrated with publisher census data to further improve accuracy. Duplicated and unduplicated data is then integrated to create the Total News audience estimates produced in each database release.
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Darcy Song was a reporter at Mumbrella, covering media owners, adtech and social platforms. She left in October 2023.
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