Total News readership increases in all states, reaches 97% of adult population

The latest release of Total News readership shows 20.4 million Australians consuming news in a four-week period, an increase of 0.9% compared to the same period last year.

The readership figures, produced by Roy Morgan for ThinkNewsBrands, refer to the 12 months to December 2021 and show that Total News reaches 97% of the population aged 14+. Total News consists of all news brands (print and digital) and digital news websites.

Readership has grown in all states and territories up 1.8% in Western Australia and 1.1% in Queensland while digital news maintains its position of strength with readership of 19.3 million, up 1.5% compared to the same period last year.

ThinkNewsBrands general manager Vanessa Lyons said: “Regardless of which state Australians are living in, whether they were in or out of Covid lockdown or getting back to their daily lives, news continues to remain relevant with readership increasing in every state. Wherever you are in the country, whatever your age, news plays a vital role in our lives and the latest readership figures clearly reflect this.”

While Nine Publishing has the two most-read news brands – The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, News Corp Australia fills out the remainder of the top five with The Australian, The Daily Telegraph and the Herald Sun. News Corp's Queensland and South Australia metro mastheads – The Courier-Mail and Adelaide Advertiser also feature in the top 10. Nine's business daily The Australian Financial Review ranks at #7 and the independent weekly from Schwartz Publishing, The Saturday Paper, makes the rankings at #10.

Source: Roy Morgan Research, All People 14+. All audience data is based on the last 4 weeks averaged over the 12 months to December 2021.

Total News is defined as Australians aged 14+ reading news in print and/or digital. Digital news includes Australian publishers’ news websites/apps, Apple news and non-Australian owned news. It also includes ABC news and Google news.

See also: Roy Morgan readership figures show news reaches 97% of Aussies over 14 (August 2021)