Nine Publishing

The Sydney Morning Herald is Australia’s No.1 most read masthead finds Roy Morgan

The Sydney Morning Herald remains Australia’s most read news brand with a cross-platform readership of 8.1 million readers, according to the Total News readership figures released by Roy Morgan today.

Cementing its place as the country’s most read masthead, the Herald continues to more than double The Daily Telegraph readership (8.064 million versus The Telegraph’s 3.950 million) in Total News, in the latest figures in the 12-month period ending December 2022.

The Monday to Friday print edition recorded an impressive annual growth of 14% year-on-year, and quarterly growth of 4%. With a readership of 402,000, this is the fifth consecutive quarter of growth.

The Sun Herald print edition is read by 417,000 people every Sunday. In the last four weeks 1.9 million people on average have read a print edition of the Herald.

Across the Herald and Age, the prestigious Good Weekend continues to be Saturday’s most read magazine insert, attracting an average issue print readership of 722,000. Similarly, the Good Food and Traveller titles deliver total cross platform audiences of 1.54 million and 1.63 million, respectively, each month.

Sunday Life recorded an average issue print readership of 420,000, while Domain defied a softening real estate market, seeing annual and quarterly growth with a print readership of 510,000.

Nine’s Total Publishing assets reach a de-duplicated audience of 16.8 million* Australians across print and digital.

“Against a backdrop of a cost of living crisis and a touch of news fatigue affecting all publishers, The Sydney Morning Herald has more than held its own. These figures again demonstrate the quality of the Herald’s journalism and the special role we have in people’s daily lives. Our newsroom has a real great buzz at the moment and we have some really innovative and exciting projects planned to bring to our readers over the coming months,” said the Herald’s editor, Bevan Shields.

The Total News readership figures are produced by Roy Morgan for ThinkNewsBrands.

Source: Roy Morgan Research, All People 14+. All audience data is based on the last 4 weeks averaged over the 12 months to December 2022.

*This figure includes: Nine.com.au, SMH Print & Digital, The Age Print & Digital, AFR Print & Digital, Brisbane Times, WA Today, Domain Digital, Good Weekend VIC & NSW, Sunday Life VIC & NSW, Domain NIM VIC & NSW, AFR Magazine

The Age maintains its lead as Victoria’s most read masthead finds Roy Morgan

The Age has once again maintained its lead as Victoria’s most read masthead, with a cross platform readership of 5.6 million, according to Total News readership figures released by Roy Morgan today.

With one in four Australian news readers engaging with the masthead to inform their day, The Age has cemented its place as the nation’s second most read news brand after The Sydney Morning Herald.

The Age now has 1.2 million more readers than its direct competitor The Herald Sun.

The Monday to Friday print edition recorded annual growth of 3% year-on-year, and quarterly growth of 5%, recording a readership of 275,000. The Saturday edition of The Age saw quarterly growth of 3%, marking two consecutive quarters of growth.

The Sunday Age print edition is read by 387,000 people every Sunday. In the last four weeks 1.4 million people on average have read a print edition of The Age.

Across The Age and the Herald the prestigious Good Weekend continues to be Saturday’s most read magazine insert, attracting an average issue print readership of 722,000. Similarly, the Good Food and Traveller titles deliver total cross platform audiences of 1.54 million and 1.63 million, respectively, each month.

Sunday Life recorded an average issue print readership of 420,000, while Domain defied a softening real estate market, seeing annual and quarterly growth with a print readership of 510,000.

Nine’s Total Publishing assets reach a de-duplicated audience of 16.8 million* Australians across print and digital.

“If anyone needed reminding that The Age is the first-choice news outlet of Victorians, these results put that beyond doubt,” said The Age’s editor, Patrick Elligett.

The Total News readership figures are produced by Roy Morgan for ThinkNewsBrands.

Source: Roy Morgan Research, All People 14+. All audience data is based on the last 4 weeks averaged over the 12 months to December 2022.

*This figure includes: Nine.com.au, SMH Print & Digital, The Age Print & Digital, AFR Print & Digital, Brisbane Times, WA Today, Domain Digital, Good Weekend VIC & NSW, Sunday Life VIC & NSW, Domain NIM VIC & NSW, AFR Magazine

The Australian Financial Review is Australia’s most read premium business title

The Australian Financial Review is the country’s most read premium business masthead recording a cross platform readership of 3.6 million people, according to Total News readership figures released by Roy Morgan today.

As trusted business news and analysis becomes more important than ever during turbulent economic times, the Financial Review is outpacing the market compared to its nearest competitor.

The Financial Review’s average issue print readership Monday-Friday has increased 26% year-on-year and 8% quarter-on-quarter. This is the highest quarterly result recorded since September 2018. Meanwhile, The Australian has seen an annual drop of 18% for the same period.

With the AFR Weekend Saturday print edition readership increasing by a massive 41% year on year, and 15% in the last quarter, the weekend and weekday print editions are outpacing the market with their growth.

AFR Magazine continues to dominate Australia’s monthly magazine insert figures, with a print readership of 430,000, which has seen a quarter on quarter growth of 5%.

Nine’s Total Publishing assets reach a de-duplicated audience of 16.8 million* Australians across print and digital.

“The Financial Review is holding up amid the cost-of-living squeeze on overall news audiences and subscriptions, maintaining most of the strong gains made during the pandemic. That reflects the value of the masthead’s unique journalism to our target readers,” said the masthead’s editor-in-chief Michael Stutchbury.

The Total News readership figures are produced by Roy Morgan for ThinkNewsBrands.

“If anyone needed reminding that The Age is the first-choice news outlet of Victorians, these results put that beyond doubt,” said The Age’s editor, Patrick Elligett.

The Total News readership figures are produced by Roy Morgan for ThinkNewsBrands.

Source: Roy Morgan Research, All People 14+. All audience data is based on the last 4 weeks averaged over the 12 months to December 2022.

*This figure includes: Nine.com.au, SMH Print & Digital, The Age Print & Digital, AFR Print & Digital, Brisbane Times, WA Today, Domain Digital, Good Weekend VIC & NSW, Sunday Life VIC & NSW, Domain NIM VIC & NSW, AFR Magazine

Landmark examination of national security by The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age

Red Alert series examines the potential of military action involving Australia by 2026

A complacent Australian population and unprepared defence force could have catastrophic results if fears of a war with China within three years are realised, reveals a landmark new investigation by The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.

The three-part subscriber series Red Alert – led by political and international editor Peter Hartcher and foreign affairs and national security correspondent Matthew Knott – draws on the views of five respected panellists whose expertise spans military strategy, defence policy, cyber, geopolitics and technology.

They examine the most pressing national security challenges facing Australia, including the consequences of our nation’s political leaders refusing to be frank with the public about the dire threats the nation faces. All agree that a Chinese invasion of Taiwan would result in war, potentially as early as 2026.

The series comes at arguably the most significant moment in Australian defence policy since World War II, with the federal government set to release its response to the defence strategic review as well as reveal the type of submarine technology it will acquire under the AUKUS pact.

Using innovative graphics and interactive storytelling, the Red Alert series will run across Nine’s mastheads The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, Brisbane Times and WAToday from Tuesday, March 7, culminating in a joint written communique including recommendations for action. While all panellists want peace, they said we need to prepare for the possibility of imminent war.

The five respected experts – former senior Defence Department official Peter Jennings, Macquarie University senior lecturer in strategic studies and criminology Lavina Lee, former chief scientist of Australia Alan Finkel, National Institute of Strategic Resilience chair Lesley Seebeck and retired Army major general Mick Ryan – all met in person over nearly two days to examine a range of scenarios and to determine whether Australia is ready for war.

“War and peace are the biggest decisions a country can make,” said Peter Hartcher. “We all live here and pay taxes here – we all have a lot at stake.

“The government will soon announce its big defence strategic review. But their review is not independent and most of its real thinking will be kept secret.

“We’ve brought together five eminent experts. They’ve given us an independent insight into our future, problems and solutions. It’s sometimes fascinating, disturbing, and motivating. It’s honest and it’s fearless.”

With the world’s ammunition stocks and military hardware fast being consumed by war in Ukraine, the panel reveals that an opportunistic grab for Taiwan could result in 200,000 US troops pouring into Australia as Chinese missiles attack our military facilities and cyber attacks on critical infrastructure become the new battlefield.

“Neither the Australian military nor the public are presently truly prepared for the outbreak of war and Australia’s inevitable participation,” said panellist Lavina Lee, adding the biggest danger the nation faces is complacency rather than alarmism. “This means there is an absence of urgency about what needs to be done now.”

The executive editor of the Herald, The Age, Brisbane Times and WAToday, Tory Maguire, said few journalists could pull together such a high calibre panel of experts in the way Peter Hartcher and Matthew Knott have.

“The findings and recommendations will resonate right through Australia’s highest levels of decision making, inside and outside the ADF,” Maguire said.

“It’s not an easy conversation to have, but it’s crucial we have it now and not leave it until after it’s too late. Properly funding Australia’s defences will come at a cost, and only a grown up analysis and debate will get us to where we need to be to ensure our future as a prosperous, lucky country.”

Three-part series Red Alert will begin Tuesday, March 7 in The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age , Brisbane Times and WAToday.

A scathing critique by Paul Keating on the above Red Alert series.

I see where Keating’s coming from but I found nothing wrong with the article other than the fact that it’ll probably piss off those cronies at the CCP. It’s pretty realistic and important.

Good Food, the food and restaurant guide of Fairfax/Nine, ceased to be a separate website from yesterday (March 16) and was integrated into the websites of SMH, The Age, Brisbane Times and WA Today.

It means a majority of Good Food content which used to be available free and unrestricted (such as recipes and restaurant reviews) is now behind the paywall, and you will have to be a subscriber of one of the news websites above to see all the articles.