Fewer than three per cent of Australians don’t read news media in a month… and that’s including those using ad blockers or ad-free subscriptions, according to new Roy Morgan research.
New figures indicate reading news content is “more common than supermarket visits and 2.8x more trusted than social media”.
The latest Roy Morgan audience consumption data shows that 97 per cent of Australians aged 14+ engage with news each month; this equates to 22.4 million readers, more than visit the supermarket in a month, eat a piece fruit or drink coffee.
When it comes to addressable reach, which excludes people using ad blockers or ad-free subscriptions, news publishing reaches 97.1 per cent of the country monthly. On a weekly basis, news publishing ranks as the third-highest medium for addressable reach, with a figure of 87.per cent; this is just behind video (93.3 per cent) and social (92.5 per cent). Total News Publishing is also one of the most trusted sources of news and current affairs; 28.2 per cent of Australians state that news is their most trusted source, while just ten per cent say that social media is their most trusted source.
Meanwhile, more Australians engage with diverse content through reading (53 per cent) than through listening (28 per cent) or watching (47 per cent).
Among brands, the ABC News has the largest audience with a unique audience of 12.6 million, while SWM’s The Nightly scrapes home at the bottom of the list, with 2.9 million, just behind Sky News and the Australian Financial Review.