The Newspaper Works Australia Releases New Quarterly Newspaper Industry Report

The Newspaper Works Australia, a leading industrial nodal body for newspapers has recently released a quarterly report that analyses the length and breadth of newspaper audiences across platforms. These efforts are in a bid to counter what it calls the “uninformed comment” in the industry.

The latest figures from the Enhanced Media Metrics Australia (EMMA) survey show that the overall readership for 13 key mastheads rose by 2.4 per cent from March 2013 to February 2014, Sydney Morning Herald reports.

Through ‘The Works’ report, Mark Hollands, Chief Executive Officer of the Newspaper Works aims to offer further evidence alongside circulation data by encouraging advertisers to turn to print advertising. Hollands is further of a view that audiences who engage with the newspaper and digital data are massively huge.

He further adds, “At least five media agencies bosses have said this year, the decline is ad spend in print is an over-reaction, out of synch with reality and needs to change to better reflect the potential of advertisers’ profitable engagement with newspaper audiences. The quarterly report supports that contention with data from Emma and Nielsen Online Ratings,” Ad News Australia reports.

This report was created with the help of data from Emma (Enhanced Media Metrics Australia) which highlights the fact that newspaper journalism in print and web continues to attract audiences.

Hollands added, “I believe the report provides sufficient evidence to justify either greater commitment or validation on the part of advertisers, or it should at least provoke re-consideration by those who remain open to the potential of all marketing channels.”

The Emma survey tracks readership across print, desktop, mobile and tablet formats and according to the latest survey, The Sydney Morning Herald has retained its crown as Australia's best-read publication in February, with readership edging up to be more than 500,000. The Herald had 4.79 million readers, followed by Sydney's The Daily Telegraph with 4.26 million readers. Following them was Melbourne's The Herald Sun with 4.1 million readers, down slightly on the previous survey.

According to the latest results, as reported by B&T.com, the online readership of The Daily Telegraph has increased from 1.066 million in EMMA’s first set of monthly data from July 2012 to June 2013 to 1.473 million currently. As in comparison to the first lot of the Emma Data, The Sydney Morning Herald also saw an increase from 2.488 million to 2.824 million.

Overall, according to The Newspaper Works, the digital audiences for newspapers have jumped by 13.5% with continued upward trend indicated, while the print has witnessed a decline in the recent past by 5.2% according to the latest data.

By: Savita V Jayaram