Flying start to 2010 for APN Brands

News Release - Friday 28 May 2010

Flying start to 2010 for APN Brands

Strong readership gains in the first quarter highlight a positive start to 2010 for APN’s major publishing brands. The latest industry readership results from Nielsen Media Research are released today and cover the period for the 12 months ending March 2010.

Latest results show APN’s main publishing brands lead the way in growing new readers. The New Zealand Herald has strengthened its position as New Zealand’s best read newspaper with a readership of 582,000 and is the country’s fastest growing title with an increase of 22,000 readers since the last survey results were released. The New Zealand Woman’s Weekly remains number one in the competitive weekly magazine category with 814,000 readers and the Herald on Sunday dominates Sunday newspaper readership in the Northern region, from Taupo north.

Consumers demonstrate confidence in APN brands Publishing Chief Executive Martin Simons said there was nothing but encouraging news in the latest readership results.

“APN has achieved readership growth in every category and our publishing brands now reach 2.2 million New Zealanders on a typical day,” he said.

“It is extremely rewarding to start the year with such positive results across the board and demonstrates the confidence New Zealanders have in the printed medium and in our titles” Herald leads every day Herald readership is now higher than any other newspaper on each day it is published. Overall the Herald’s average issue readership of 582,000 is 37,000 higher than any daily or weekly newspaper in New Zealand. Readership premiums are even stronger for the Weekend Herald, recording 625,000 readers – 80,000 more readers than any other paper - and the Wednesday edition with a readership of 609,000 - 64,000 more readers.

Readership increases for the Herald have been driven by a significant success in APN’s subscriber acquisition programme, which underpinned the great strength of the brand and accounted for more than half its daily circulation.

“A strong subscriber base delivers a more frequent and highly engaged audience across every day of publication, which is extremely valuable for our advertising clients,” said Martin Simons.

The Herald’s newspaper inserted magazines also continue to build reader loyalty with Canvas increasing readership by 16,000 to 433,000 and Time Out, delivered in the Thursday edition of the paper, adding a massive 43,000 readers to reach 393,000. The Business Herald (Friday), with a readership of 385,000, now has five times as many readers as any other weekly business magazine in New Zealand.

Most significant gains in brand audience The Herald’s brand audience, (those who read across the printed and online edition of the paper) has grown by 44,000 year on year to reach 721,000 on a typical day. Both readership of the print edition and the website have grown since the December 2009 results, highlighting the ability of the Herald to extend consumer touch-points across multiple media channels. Over a week the Herald brand reaches 1.2 million New Zealanders, or two out of three Aucklanders.

Super Sunday
A strong performance in retail sales has driven Herald on Sunday readership up by 7,000 to 378,000 on the same period last year. The Herald on Sunday is the clear number one in the Northern region with 57,000 more readers than any other Sunday newspaper, extending its lead by an additional 14,000 readers over the 12 month period. In Auckland itself the paper has a readership of 220,000 a premium of 44,000 readers against any other Sunday newspaper.

New Zealand’s leading magazine
The New Zealand Woman’s weekly has also achieved an increase over the last three months, reaching 814,000 readers, up 19,000 since the December survey results. The Weekly is New Zealand’s best read newsstand magazine and has 31,000 more readers than its nearest weekly competitor.

The New Zealand Listener has a readership of 262,000 and leads the current affairs category while youth title, Creme, has recorded a readership of 152,000 giving it the strongest reach into its target audience of 10 to 14 year old girls.

Simply You and Simply You living reach 99,000 and 62,000 readers respectively and have a significant skew to high income readers.

*Readership results are measured independently by Nielsen Media Research as part of the National Print Readership Survey. The survey is a continuous, face to face survey based on a representative sample of 12,000 New Zealanders age 10+ Contact: Robert Wallace, Professional Public Relations, Tel: 09 979 2000 Information Sources: Nielsen Media Research, National Readership Survey: Latest period, April 09 – March 10; Previous period, January 09 – December 09; Same period last year, April 08 – March 09.

Newspaper readership & brand audience: All people aged 15+, Magazine readership: All people aged 10+

ENDS

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