The New Zealand Herald drives print market

The New Zealand Herald drives print market

The New Zealand Herald continues to lead the newspaper market with a daily readership increase of 28,000** readers for the period July 2002 to June 2003.

According to the latest National Readership Survey from Nielsen Media Research for this period, The New Zealand Herald continued its track record of consistently growing readership over the last six readership releases. More than One Million New Zealanders (1,048,000*) aged 15 and over read a copy of The New Zealand Herald in any given week.

Herald Editor-in-Chief Gavin Ellis said the newspaper passed the million-readers-a-week mark in a survey six months ago and the latest survey was an improvement on that milestone. "Readership continues to grow because we publish stories that affect our readers: stories like the leaky building syndrome, why our children are too fat and why Auckland has become a nightmare for motorists," he said.

Readership has grown every day across the week and on a typical day the New Zealand Herald will reach 597,000* New Zealanders aged 15 and over representing 5% readership growth for the same period last year.

Ellis said the Herald maintained an ongoing commitment to innovation including the development and implementation of Canvas, the Weekend Herald magazine, the SuperSport tabloid in the Friday Herald and the reconfiguration of the paper throughout the week. "Improvements lead to increased readership and we are now seeing the results of recent development of the paper" he said.

The New Zealand Herald's readership is growing faster than the population, therefore increasing market penetration both nationally and in its key circulation markets, Taupo North, Auckland and Hamilton.

The Weekend Herald has also seen significant growth increasing readership to 724,000* people 15 and over. This represents an increase of 54,000** readers compared to the same period last year. The Weekend Herald continues to deliver well in excess of double the readership of any other weekend paper in the Auckland region and nationally delivers over 100,000 more readers than its nearest weekend rival.

Chief Executive Officer Ken Steinke, said this readership result was evidence that the Herald's ongoing growth came from continued efforts to drive the market. The Herald's growth represents the bulk of growth in the metropolitan newspaper market.

"The last readership survey results cemented the Herald in a strong position from which to launch our weekend magazine and provide major improvements to our weekday edition" he said. "As we have seen from this latest survey and our own in-house research, these changes have been well received and have further strengthened our relationship with readers."

General Manager Sales and Marketing, Pip Elliott said "Our increased readership and the development of new additions to our core publication continues to offer advertisers environments from which to communicate effectively with their customers. We remain committed to strengthening our position in the Auckland market. However the growth in the northern region and nationally are testimony of the growing appeal of the Herald".

ends Source: * Nielsen Media Research, Newspaper Readership Survey July 2002 - June 2003 (All people aged 15+) ** Nielsen Media Research, Newspaper Readership Survey, July 2001 - June 2002 (All people aged 15+)

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