Roy Morgan Research
August 18, 2019

Over 3 million New Zealanders read newspapers in 2019

Topic: Readership Surveys
Finding No: 8092
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Roy Morgan readership results for New Zealand’s print newspapers and magazines for the 12 months to June 2019.

Over 3 million, or 77.6%, of New Zealanders aged 14+ now read or access newspapers in an average 7 day period via print or online (website or app) platforms. In addition a total of over 2.1 million New Zealanders aged 14+ (53.9%) read magazines whether in print or online either via the web or an app.

These are the latest findings from the Roy Morgan New Zealand Single Source survey of 6,563 New Zealanders aged 14+ over the 12 months to June 2019.

Majority of New Zealand’s leading newspapers increase their cross-platform audience

New Zealand’s most widely read publication, the New Zealand Herald, consolidated its overall readership with a total cross-platform audience of 1,885,000 in the 12 months to June 2019, up 79,000 on a year ago.

The New Zealand Herald, based in New Zealand's largest city of Auckland, has a readership more than three times as large as Wellington's Dominion Post on 485,000, The Press with 344,000 readers and national weekly The Sunday Star Times with 309,000 readers.

Although the Herald has maintained a clear pole position amongst New Zealand's newspapers its cross-platform audience growth of 4.4% over the past year was outpaced by the Waikato Times (+23.2%), the Otago Daily Times (+7.2%), Bay of Plenty Times (+9.6%), Hawke’s Bay Today (+24.8%) and the Southland Times (+40.7%).


Top 10 Newspapers – Total Cross-Platform Audience (Print & Online)

Publication Print Digital
(web or app)
Total Cross-Platform Audience*
(print, web or app)
  June
2018
June
2019
June
2018
June
2019
June
2018
June
2019
% Change
  ‘000s ‘000s ‘000s ‘000s ‘000s ‘000s %
New Zealand Herald 775 782 1,475 1,545 1,806 1,885 4.4%
Dominion Post 293 297 293 309 500 485 -3.0%
The Press 263 227 186 189 364 344 -5.5%
Sunday Star Times 337 265 84 63 402 309 -23.1%
Waikato Times 123 145 114 140 203 250 23.2%
Otago Daily Times 151 138 119 153 222 238 7.2%
Bay of Plenty Times 90 83 98 120 157 172 9.6%
Hawke’s Bay Today 81 88 50 85 117 146 24.8%
Southland Times 59 75 43 63 86 121 40.7%
Northern Advocate 77 63 68 77 124 118 -4.8%

*Cross-Platform Audience is the number of New Zealanders who have read or accessed individual newspaper content via print or online. Print is net readership in an average 7 days. Online is net readership online in an average 7 days.

New Zealand Taste soars into the Top 15 magazines for the first time

New Zealand’s most widely read magazine remains driving magazine AA Directions - now with an average issue readership of 485,000 New Zealanders ahead of New Zealand Woman’s Day on a readership of 274,000, New Zealand Listener on 231,000 and the TV Guide on 205,000.

However, the stand-out improver over the last 12 months was New Zealand Taste which grew its print readership by an impressive 35,000 to 89,000 and became one of New Zealand’s top 15 most widely read magazines for the first time.

Another magazine to perform strongly is the real estate focused Property Press which grew its readership by 47,000 to 138,000 and is now the eighth most widely read magazine. NZ Gardener also increased its readership by 5,000 to 111,000.

Other magazines to perform strongly over the past year include Your Home & Garden which increased readership by 7,000 to 81,000, Metro which was up 5,000 to a readership of 57,000, New Zealand Fashion Quarterly which was up 10,000 to 48,000 and Simply You which was up 3,000 to 31,000.


New Zealand’s Top 15 Magazines by Average Issue Print Readership

Publication June 2018 June 2019 % Reach Change
  ‘000s ‘000s %
AA Directions* 538 485 -1.6%
NZ Woman’s Day* 309 274 -1.0%
New Zealand Listener* 268 231 -1.1%
TV Guide* 224 205 -0.5%
Australian Women’s Weekly
(NZ Edition)*
222 200 -0.7%
SkyWatch* 156 146 -0.3%
NZ Woman’s Weekly* 164 140 -0.7%
Property Press* 91 138 1.2%
NZ House & Garden* 149 128 -0.6%
Kia Ora (Air NZ) 159 112 -1.3%
NZ Gardener* 106 111 0.1%
Mindfood* 110 109 -0.1%
Cuisine 128 103 -0.7%
North & South* 108 102 -0.2%
New Zealand Taste 54 89 0.8%

*Roy Morgan has measured additional readership for this magazine via Cross-Platform Audiences – see next section. **NZ House & Garden (+5,000) increased their average issue readership but not enough to grow their reach of population which kept pace with population growth.

Property Press leads cross-platform* audience growth – up over 40% on a year ago

Property Press increased its total cross-platform audience by 47,000, or 43.1%, to 156,000 in the 12 months to June 2019. Another magazine to increase its cross-platform audience, although outside the top 10, was the National Business Review which grew its total cross-platform audience by 11,000, up 13.9%, to 90,000.

Despite the impressive increase for Property Press it is motoring magazine AA Directions which is easily New Zealand’s most widely read magazine with a market-leading total cross-platform audience of 542,000.

Other leading magazines with strong cross-platform audiences include NZ Woman’s Day with an audience of 324,000, New Zealand Listener on 257,000, Australian Women’s Weekly NZ Edition on 232,000, TV Guide Magazine on 231,000 and NZ Woman’s Weekly with an audience of 208,000.

Top 10 Magazines – Total Cross-Platform Audience (Print & Online)

Publication Print Digital
(web or app)
Total Cross-Platform Audience*
(print, web or app)
  June
2018
June
2019
June
2018
June
2019
June
2018
June
2019
% Change
  ‘000s ‘000s ‘000s ‘000s ‘000s ‘000s %
AA Directions 485 140 542  
NZ Woman’s Day/ Now to Love 309 274 69 84 346 324 -6.4%
New Zealand Listener 268 231 54 53 280 257 -8.2%
Australian Women’s Weekly NZ Edition 200 49 232  
TV Guide Magazine 205 58 231  
NZ Woman’s Weekly/ Now to Love 164 140 69 84 216 208 -3.7%
SkyWatch 146 66 193  
NZ House & Garden 149 128 53 58 189 171 -9.5%
Mindfood 109 73 164  
Property Press 91 138 26 27 109 156 43.1%

*Cross-platform audience is the number of New Zealanders who have read or accessed individual magazine content via print or online. Print is average issue readership; digital is website visitation in an average 4 weeks (New Zealand House & Garden), except for weekly titles which are in an average 7 days (New Zealand Woman’s Weekly, New Zealand Woman’s Day, New Zealand Listener and National Business Review).

Weekend (North Island) and Viva (North Island) both increase readership

Only two leading newspaper inserted magazines managed to increase their readership over the last year. Weekend (North Island) increased its readership by 3,000 to 241,000 to be the second most widely read newspaper inserted magazine and Viva (North Island) grew their readership by 5,000 to 195,000.

However, despite the increases for both Weekend and Viva it is again the Weekend New Zealand Herald newspaper inserted magazine Canvas with an average issue readership of 298,000 that leads the field.

Behind the two market leaders are Sunday Magazine on 227,000, Your Weekend on 195,000 and Bite (North Island) on 193,000.


New Zealand’s Top 5 Newspaper Inserted Magazines by Print Readership

Publication June 2018 June 2019 % Reach Change
  ‘000s ‘000s %
Canvas (North Island) 315 298 -0.6%
Weekend (North Island) 238 241 0.0%*
Sunday Magazine 268 227 -1.2%
Viva (North Island) 190 195 0.0%*
Your Weekend 221 195 -0.8%
Bite (North Island) 207 193 -0.4%

*Both Weekend (North Island) and Viva (North Island) grew their average issue readership but this meant their readership reach of population stayed the same as the New Zealand population increased over the last 12 months.

Michele Levine, Chief Executive Officer, Roy Morgan, says:

Block Quote

“The latest Roy Morgan readership figures for New Zealand show continued strong growth in cross-platform audiences for many of New Zealand’s leading newspapers. Six out of the top ten and 11 out of the top 20 newspapers grew their cross-platform audience over the last year.

“Over 3 million New Zealanders now read or access newspapers in an average 7 day period via print or online (website or app) equivalent to over three-quarters of New Zealanders. Leading the way is the New Zealand Herald with a cross-platform audience of over 1.88 million, up by an impressive 79,000 (+4.4%) on a year ago.

“The growing Herald has been joined by impressive increases at other leading newspapers including the Southland Times (+40.7%), Hawke’s Bay Today (+24.8%), Waikato Times (+23.2%), Bay of Plenty Times (+9.6%) and Otago Daily Times (+7.2%) all growing their cross-platform audiences significantly over the last year.

“In addition to a bright year for many newspapers there have been several good performances with magazine readership compared to a year ago. Now over 2.1 million New Zealanders (53.9%) now read magazines whether in print or online a huge and valuable audience that advertisers can reach via established and well-known brands.

New Zealand Taste magazine has been a standout performer increasing its readership by 35,000 to 89,000 compared to a year ago and becoming one of New Zealand’s top 15 most widely read magazines in the process for the first time.

“Other magazines to perform well include Property Press which grew its readership by 47,000 to 138,000, NZ Gardener up 5,000 to 111,000, Your Home & Garden up 7,000 to 81,000, Metro up 5,000 to 57,000, New Zealand Fashion Quarterly up 10,000 to 48,000 and Simply You which was up 3,000 to 31,000.”

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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

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