Roy Morgan Research
May 20, 2024

Written news maintains staggering 97 per cent reach and delivers deep, frequent audience engagement.

Topic: Readership Surveys
Finding No: 9556

The latest Roy Morgan research shows:

  • Total News Publishing continues to reach 97% (21.5M) of Australians aged 14+ each month reflecting immense breadth and depth of audience accessible to advertisers via news.
  • Frequent, deep engagement with news with 67M interactions per week and three in five news audiences reading three or more categories in addition to general, breaking news, further reinforcing the premium nature of news content.
  • Widespread digital accessibility is seeing state and territory mastheads draw huge additional readership outside their local markets.
  • The strength of Total News Publishing in engaging audiences which are influential, interested, and ready to buy.

News reaches a staggering number of Australians each month.

Readership figures from Roy Morgan show written news reaches 97% (or 21.5M) of Australians aged 14+ each month. The figure reflects the evolving and deepening landscape of news media titles and readership behaviours across print and digital formats and demonstrates to advertisers the breadth of audience accessible via news media.

Frequent and deep engagement of news further reinforces its value as premium media content.

Roy Morgan figures also show readers across all demographics are actively leaning into news, with 67M interactions per week. Australian news readers are also consistently engaged across multiple sources of written news to satisfy diverse interests, with three in five news audiences reading three or more categories in addition to general, breaking news.

Source: Roy Morgan Single Source Australia Apr23-Mar24; Last 4 weeks average news cross platform publication 

State and territory mastheads reach large additional interstate audiences.

Further analysis also reveals state/territory mastheads enjoy large readership numbers outside their local markets, due to digital accessibility. The latest figures highlight readership of state-based titles transcends its borders, with incremental reach of up to +137% and most state titles seeing a doubling of readership. The figures demonstrate the large national interest in state/territory mastheads and the additional media value home grown titles can provide advertisers beyond publications’ state borders.

Source: Roy Morgan Single Source Australia Apr23-Mar24; Last 4 weeks average news cross platform publication 

News audience influential, interested, and ready to buy.

Exploration into attitudes and behaviours of special interest category readers reveals the strength of Total News Publishing in engaging audiences which are influential, interested, and ready to buy. Readers across the top titles within the Auto, Business & Finance and Lifestyle & Health news categories are 20%-35% more likely than the general population to have high discretionary spending. Business category readers are also significantly more likely to be very confident in their financial situation (36% more likely than the general population).

Margin of Error

The margin of error to be allowed for in any estimate depends mainly on the number of interviews on which it is based. Margin of error gives indications of the likely range within which estimates would be 95% likely to fall, expressed as the number of percentage points above or below the actual estimate. Allowance for design effects (such as stratification and weighting) should be made as appropriate.

Sample Size Percentage Estimate
40% – 60% 25% or 75% 10% or 90% 5% or 95%
1,000 ±3.0 ±2.7 ±1.9 ±1.3
5,000 ±1.4 ±1.2 ±0.8 ±0.6
7,500 ±1.1 ±1.0 ±0.7 ±0.5
10,000 ±1.0 ±0.9 ±0.6 ±0.4
20,000 ±0.7 ±0.6 ±0.4 ±0.3
50,000 ±0.4 ±0.4 ±0.3 ±0.2
Back to topBack To Top Arrow