The magazine sector was celebrating a mostly positive swing after the latest readership, circ and, importantly, engagement figures were released last week. And while the numbers aren’t quite so good for the newspaper sector, the sky is still not falling.
Readership
- Download
the newspaper readership figures here: Newspaper Comparitives Q3 2011 – Q2 2012
Nielsen’s
consumer and media insights report reveals that in the dailies stable, the Waikato
Times and The
Dominion Post
yielded the only positive national results with The New Zealand Herald, The Press and Otago Daily Times all experiencing marginal
readership drops. The Waikato Times earned Nielsen’s ‘significant’ stamp thanks to a jump in
readership to 107,000, up from 91,000 readers over the same period last year.
The
Dominion Post’s
increase was small, but ’twas an increase nevertheless, up from 231,000 to
241,000 and it also experienced a slight increase in the central region
results. The New Zealand Herald, The Press and Otago Daily Times all experienced marginal
readership drops in the national results and readership across The Press and Otago Daily Times also dipped slightly in the
Southern region.
In the
weekly newspaper stakes, the news isn’t so good for Sunday Star Times and NBR, each earning a significant stamp
from Nielsen for not-positive reasons. Sunday Star Times’ readership dropped by 37,000 to
505,000 and NBR
dropped 13,000 readers on the same period last year, with its readership now at
52,000. In the Northern region, Sunday Star Times picked up another significant from
Nielsen, its readership dropping from 282,000 to 258,000. In that same
region the Herald on Sunday was the only one to up its readership, up from 352,000 to 366,000. In the Auckland region, Sunday Star Times experienced another significant
loss, dropping 18,000 readers to sit at 178,000. Fellow Fairfax publication Sunday
News upped its
readership in Auckland from 100,000 to 119,000.
None of
the newspaper liftouts or inserted magazines offered up revolutionary results,
each holding their own apart from Sunday, which was the only one deemed significant by
Nielsen. Losing readership ground, it dropped 52,000 readers in the national
results, down to 448,000 when compared to 500,000 over the same period last
year.
Circulation
Moving to ABC‘s circ results, the news doesn’t bode quite so well, although with positive
readership results already under its belt, APN’s Herald on Sunday has more to celebrate as the only
weekly press to up its circ, selling 102,385 copies on average per week, up four percent on last year’s 98,042. All other weeklies were down on circ, NBR and Sunday Star Times experiencing the biggest
decreases, both down by around 12 percent. And while Sunday News managed to up its readership, its
circ was down ten percent, from 49,801 to 44,445.
The
Dominion Post, The
New Zealand Herald,
Otago Daily Times,
The Press, Southland
Times and Waikato
Times all
experienced circ drops. Putting a dampener on its impressive readership
results, the circ figures reveal the Waikato Times took the biggest knock of the
group, down six percent to 37,526 when compared to 40,014 over the same
period last year.
Digital
APN trumpeted its digital prowess, with average monthly unique browsers to The
Herald’s website
increasing two percent over the past year to June 2012. The number of consumers
connecting with The Herald exclusively online is up by almost 40 percent on last
year. And engagement time on the site also increased a further four percent and
visits to its mobile sites increased by 60 percent over the six-month period to
July 2012, compared to the same time last year. Connections through the
smartphone apps (iPhone and Android) have more than doubled, up 210 percent,
and Herald iPad visitors also increased 124 percent over the period.
Over in
Fairfax’s digital world, Stuff.co.nz clocked a monthly
unique audience of 1,070,000. Video content is also on the up, jumping 25 percent
year-on-year to reach 1,272,461. Smartphone monthly unique visitors rose to 110,830
on iPhone (up 110 percent) and 372,276 via Android. iPad
monthly unique visitors reached 42,657, up 140 percent year-on-year.
In a release, APN New
Zealand chief executive Martin Simons says the latest results showed more
consumers are recognising APN’s content strength.
“Maintaining
audience for printed products is commendable in the digital age. Growing print
audiences is exceptional. The fact
we have been able to do this, while continuing to build our digital presence,
will underpin the future success of our business.”
And in its
press release, Fairfax, which is currently trying its best to distance itself from the problems facing its parent company in Australia (keep an eye out for an opinion piece from Sandra King in the near future on that very topic), offered up plenty of commentary on the readership front,
but not surprisingly not very much on circ. Okay, none.
Chief executive Allen Williams says the latest results are a
resounding endorsement of the company’s publications and platforms.
“These
results follow on from the previous quarter’s strong results, putting paid to
the often used throwaway comment predicting the demise of print. We’re really
pleased to have such overall positive readership results across our brands,
from print through to digital.”
