Reader engagement with newspaper brands is bigger than ever

Reader engagement with newspaper brands is bigger than ever

Newspapers and their online platforms each week attract a strong majority of adult New Zealanders seeking news, information and advertising messages.

Latest figures from research company Nielsen show that 2.06 million New Zealanders aged 15+ turn to daily and Sunday newspapers each week, marginally down by just over one percent from the previous survey in 2014.

Coupled with newspapers’ websites, now drawing a combined monthly audience in excess of two million, the total newspaper audience is growing rapidly*.

Commenting on the figures, News Works NZ chief executive Brian Hill said newspapers continue to be read by very significant audiences in all parts of New Zealand.

“In fact, outside the four main centres, newspaper readership of 783,000 people is unchanged from the previous survey. This demonstrates that the relevance of regional daily papers to their local communities is powerful and enduring”.

Mr Hill said nearly three out o f five adult New Zealanders read daily and Sunday papers each week with readership especially strong among higher income people who have above-average spending power, a fact which is particularly relevant to advertisers.

“The survey reaffirms that newspaper readers tend to be affluent, are more likely to have high disposable incomes and own property. More than 340,000 daily/Sunday newspaper readers are shown by the survey to own investment properties or holiday homes”.

Mr Hill said when the newspaper readership figures are seen in conjunction with Nielsen’s data on digital readership, the audiences are huge.

“The Fairfax website stuff.co.nz and nzherald.co.nz are the country’s top news websites and when combined with odt.co.nz and the newspaper publishers’ regional websites, the monthly audience exceeds two million*. The publishers are also experiencing rapid growth in audiences accessing mobile platforms”.

ENDS

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