Roy Morgan research have this week released results for Australian newspaper readerships for the last 12 months as at March 2016 and it’s no surprise that major mastheads around the country have fallen in readership.
The number of Australians aged 14 years and older who read a print edition of one or more major metro daily newspapers Monday to Friday has fallen 10% compared with last year’s results, and as for Saturdays papers there was another fall of 4.6% across the country and a fall of 6.6% for Sunday editions.
The Herald Sun remains the most read newspaper and closer to home there was good news for those that advertise in the Gold Coast Bulletin, with an increase of readership by 5.8% from the previous year for weekday and a whopping 17.8% increase of weekend readers.
Here are the full results;
Australian Newspaper Readership, 12 months to March 2016
| M-F | M-F | Sat | Sat | Sun | Sun | |
| Mar 2015 | Mar 2016 | Mar 2015 | Mar 2016 | Mar 2015 | Mar 2016 | |
| Newspapers | R’ship (‘000s) | R’ship (‘000s) | R’ship (‘000s) | R’ship (‘000s) | R’ship (‘000s) | R’ship (‘000s) |
| National | ||||||
| The Australian | 334 | 310 | 664 | 658 | – | – |
| Aust. Financial Review | 197 | 192 | 134 | 145 | – | – |
| The Saturday Paper (NSW, Vic, Qld, SA) | – | – | – | 117 | – | – |
| NSW | ||||||
| Daily Telegraph | 648 | 645 | 610 | 597 | – | – |
| Sydney Morning Herald | 521 | 513 | 731 | 711 | – | – |
| Sunday Telegraph | – | – | – | – | 1,023 | 1,015 |
| The Sun-Herald | – | – | – | – | 672 | 640 |
| Newcastle Herald | 86 | 86 | 111 | 103 | – | – |
| Illawarra Mercury | 45 | 36 | 51 | 39 | – | – |
| Canberra Times | 70 | 62 | 97 | 73 | 72 | 48 |
| VIC | ||||||
| Herald Sun | 869 | 843 | 853 | 766 | – | – |
| The Age | 564 | 469 | 668 | 612 | – | – |
| Sunday Herald Sun | – | – | – | – | 898 | 847 |
| The Sunday Age | – | – | – | – | 564 | 477 |
| Geelong Advertiser | 46 | 53 | 68 | 78 | – | – |
| QLD | ||||||
| Courier-Mail | 436 | 409 | 542 | 513 | – | – |
| The Sunday Mail | – | – | – | – | 829 | 785 |
| Cairns Post | 57 | 49 | 82 | 72 | – | – |
| Gold Coast Bulletin | 69 | 73 | 73 | 86 | – | – |
| Townsville Bulletin | 50 | 45 | 59 | 55 | – | – |
| SA | ||||||
| Adelaide Advertiser | 334 | 324 | 391 | 371 | – | – |
| Sunday Mail | – | – | – | – | 447 | 425 |
| WA | ||||||
| West Australian | 442 | 402 | – | – | – | – |
| Weekend West | – | – | 588 | 545 | – | – |
| Sunday Times | – | – | – | – | 455 | 401 |
| Tasmania | ||||||
| The Mercury | 82 | 72 | 108 | 100 | – | – |
| The Examiner | 52 | 50 | 62 | 56 | – | – |
| The Advocate | 35 | 35 | 42 | 38 | – | – |
| Sunday Tasmanian (Tas) | – | – | – | – | 90 | 86 |
| Sunday Examiner | – | – | – | – | 63 | 52 |
| Northern Territory | ||||||
| Northern Territory News | 35 | 37 | 46 | 49 | – | – |
| Sunday Territorian | – | – | – | – | 29 | 37 |