Record readership for APN

Record readership for APN

APN has again led the New Zealand market in increasing reader numbers in the latest survey carried out by the Nielsen Company.

Competing with a widening range of news channels, The New Zealand Herald is now read each day by 602,000 people aged over 15, its best readership figure in seven years and an increase of 29,000 or 5.1% over the last 12 months.

The latest survey also confirmed that the Herald’s sister paper, the Herald on Sunday, has achieved its highest ever readership of 396,000 New Zealanders aged over 15 years, and the New Zealand Woman’s Weekly continues to hold its place at the best read weekly consumer magazine in the country.

The strong growth in readership has occurred at a time when the Herald’s online audience has also been expanding rapidly. The Herald’s daily brand audience (those reading across the print and website edition of www.nzherald.co.nz ) has increased by 81,000 (12%) year on year, now reaching 753,000 on a typical day.

Over a week the Herald brand now connects with 1.2 million New Zealanders, which is an annual jump of 105,000.

The latest readership results, released today by Nielsen Media Research, cover the 12 months ending June 2010 and measure the readership of New Zealand newspapers and magazines. Audited circulation results for newspapers and magazines for the six months from January to June 2010 are also out today.

Milestone readership results

Martin Simons, CEO of APN’s New Zealand media business, said the readership result for the Herald was outstanding and he thanked readers and advertisers for their great loyalty to the title. Prior to the previous high seven years ago Herald readership had only reached above 600,000 in the early 1990s.

“This is a remarkable result given the range of news channels consumers have today and recognises the great job the paper is doing as a news and entertainment provider,” he said.

“Its record in breaking stories, undertaking thorough research and providing leading opinion on what is on New Zealanders’ minds is second to none.”

The Herald on Sunday’s milestone result is also its highest readership since launch in 2004.

“The Sunday continues to go from strength to strength with strong retail sales and increasing subscriber commitment driving the high readership numbers” Simons said

Key facts on growth

_ The New Zealand Herald has increased its lead as New Zealand’s best read newspaper with readership growth of 29,000 or 5.1% to 602,000 in the survey period – which is more readers than all the other metropolitan newspapers combined. Readership for the Herald is now higher than the readership of any other newspaper across each of the paper’s six daily editions.

_ Audited circulation results, also released today, give the Herald an average daily circulation of 170,523, with the circulation numbers increasing over the last six months. The Herald sells almost twice as many newspapers as any other daily paper in New Zealand. The largest jump in readers has been achieved by the Weekend Herald, recording a readership of 650,000 up 37,000 or 6% on the same period last year. The Weekend Herald now has 116,000 more readers than any other weekend newspaper on a national basis and more than twice as many readers in the region north of Taupo.

_ The Herald’s Newspaper Inserted Magazines have also achieved tremendous results, each recording significant increases over the last 12 months. Canvas, inserted in the Weekend Herald, has added 36,000 readers (+9%) to reach 453,000; Time Out (Thursday) has added a massive 73,000 (21%) to 420,000 and Viva (Wednesday) now has 330,000 readers – an increase of 44,000 or 15%.

_ The increase in readership of the print publication has coincided with a strong increase in Online Audience. The Herald’s daily brand audience (those reading across the print and website editions) has increased by 81,000 year on year now reaching 753,000 on a typical day. Over a week the Herald brand connects with 1.2 million New Zealanders, an annual jump of 105,000. This increase is also reflected in www.nzherald.co.nz weekly traffic numbers. The weekly domestic audience for the site was 674,000 for the first six months of 2010, an increase of 27% on the first six months of 2009.

Success on Sunday

_ The Herald on Sunday’s record readership result of 396,000 represents an increase of 24,000 (6.5%) readers year on year, further extending the paper’s lead in its core circulation area North of Taupo. The Herald on Sunday has 54,000 more readers than any other Sunday newspaper in the key Auckland market and 66,000 more readers in the Northern Region. In Auckland the paper now attracts as many readers as its two competitors combined.

_ Circulation for the paper has now reached 95,762 copies, which is its highest circulation since launch and represents a year on year growth of 3,447 or 3.7%. Sales have continued to increase over the last 6 months

Magazine leadership

_ The New Zealand Woman’s Weekly has recorded a readership of 807,000 and continues to lead the field of weekly magazine titles, while The New Zealand Listener has grown readership by 4,000 to a total of 266,000. Youth title crème now has 149,000 readers, while Simply You and Simply You Living have both achieved solid increases on the previous period. Simply You is up by 9,000 readers to 108,000 and Simply You Living has added 8,000 to achieve 70,000. Latest circulation results indicate a strengthening of magazines sales after a difficult economic period with all NZ Magazines’ titles increasing audited sales since the previous period.

Connecting with the regions

_ APN’s Regional Newspapers are also celebrating success with the latest readership results. All main daily titles have all achieved strong readership growth with the Hawke’s Bay Today reaching 58,000 readers, an increase of 2,000. The Bay of Plenty Times also added 2,000 readers to 48,000 and The Northern Advocate was up 1,000 to 36,000 readers. The combined stable of APN’s regional newspapers now connect with 7,000 more New Zealanders, driving an increased share of regional newspaper readership for the company.

“The first six months of 2010 have proven to be very positive for APN. With the launch tomorrow (Saturday, 14 August) of a re-designed Weekend Herald with the addition of a new Weekend Magazine this will underpin even more positive results to come” Martin Simons said.

*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+

ENDS

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