Digital And Print Readership Grows For Fairfax

Digital And Print Readership Grows For
Fairfax Media’s Metropolitan Newspapers

Results in the latest Nielsen National Readership Survey show that aggregated audiences of Fairfax Media’s metropolitan mastheads – The Dominion Post, The Press and Waikato Times – across print and online are steadily increasing year on year to outperform their nearest competitors.

Demonstrating Fairfax newspapers’ status as true multi-media brands across print and online, The Dominion Post increased 4.1% to reach 303,000 readers in total, The Press grew by 2.4% to reach 257,000, and Waikato Times increased by 4.3% to reach 120,000 people aged 10+.

Looking at print readership alone, Fairfax’s metropolitan papers also had a stable result in a tough market compared to its nearest publishing competitor, dropping only by a combined 0.9% in the last year.

Fairfax Media’s Group Marketing and Sales Manager Sandra King credits the solid readership performance to the group’s exceptional editorial content and continued relevancy to local markets.

“We have a strong digital strategy for our newspaper brands. That means ensuring compelling, trusted and 100% local content is available anytime, anywhere. The Fairfax point of difference is our emphasis on quality brands and content rather than the media platform itself. People read dompost.co.nz because it is a reliable brand they can trust.”

Encompassing content generated from mastheads including dompost.co.nz, press.co.nz and waikatotimes.co.nz, Fairfax’s main digital platform stuff.co.nz continued its massive upward trend in January, with total unique browsers reaching a record high of 3.78 million. Since Stuff became New Zealand’s most popular news and entertainment site six months ago, its lead has grown to nearly 1 million total unique browsers*, its biggest ever lead.

Meantime, New Zealand’s most read, national broadsheet paper Sunday Star-Times achieved a strong result in a year when many New Zealanders cut back their discretionary spending, maintaining an average issue readership of 585,000 aged 10+ for the 12 months ended December 2009. The paper is bought and read throughout the country by over 200,000 more readers than any other Sunday newspaper.

Capturing the strong growth in the hyper-local market, Fairfax communities have recorded a healthy result against their nearest publishing rival. Fairfax Media’s metropolitan communities – covering the Auckland region, Waikato, the Wellington region, Canterbury and Dunedin – now reach 1.3 million New Zealanders aged 15+, up 6% or 73,000 readers in the last year.

Unsurprisingly during the downturn of 2009, among the stand-out performers for Fairfax magazines were those titles that tapped into consumer trends of growing your own and entertaining at home. NZ Gardener continued its extraordinary growth trajectory, attracting 307,000 readers aged 10+, up 15% in the last year. New Zealand’s premier food and wine authority, Cuisine magazine has a readership of 395,000 readers, up 1.5% year on year, and NZ Lifestyle Block now attracts 60,000 readers, up a massive 7.1%.

Fairfax magazines have a total reach of nearly 2.16 million New Zealanders aged 10+, up 0.9% year on year.

“These readership results emphasise our true national reach and ability to connect with readers from all communities of interest, lifestyle and location across New Zealand unlike any other publisher in the country,” says Ms King. “When we say, “talk to Fairfax, talk to New Zealand’, we can substantiate it.”

ENDS

© Scoop Media