New Roy Morgan figures show almost three million New Zealanders read newspapers, with rivals the New Zealand Herald and Stuff scrabbling for leadership.

Some 2.96 million (or 71.7 per cent) of over-14s read or access newspapers in an average seven-day period in print or online. Morgan says the “standout performer” during the pandemic at a masthead level has been New Zealand Herald, which had a total cross-platform audience of 1,844,000 in the 12 months to June 2021, unchanged on a year ago.

Stuff.co.nz remains New Zealand’s leading news website, bringing together newspapers including the Dominion Post, The Press and Sunday Star-Times, and magazines such as TV Guide and NZ Gardener. The total digital audience for Stuff in an average seven days is nearly 1.72 million New Zealanders, well ahead of NZHerald.co.nz on 1.56 million.

Two of the top ten titles grew their total cross-platform audience over the past year – the independently-owned Otago Daily Times, which was up 32,000 (+12.7 per cent) to an audience of 285,000 and Stuff’s Taranaki Daily News, up 14,000 (+11.6 per cent) to an audience of 132,000.

Others in the top ten are the Sunday Star-Times in fifth place with 230,000 readers, ahead of the Waikato Times on 184,000, Hawke’s Bay Today on 151,000, Bay of Plenty Times on 146,000 and the Northern Advocate on 121,000.

“Despite the challenges of the past year Stuff’s newspapers have recorded a promising 2021 so far with six growing their total cross-platform audiences over the past year and an even more impressive nine growing their cross-platform audiences so far in 2021,” says Roy Morgan.

Among the nine Stuff newspapers that grew their total cross-platform audiences in the year to June 2021 compared to the year to December 2020 were the Dominion Post in Wellington, The Press, Sunday Star-Times, Taranaki Daily News, Southland Times, Manawatu Standard, Nelson Mail, Sunday News and the Timaru Herald.

Top 10 Newspapers – Total 7 Day Cross-Platform Audience (Print & Online)

Full Newspaper Readership Results available to view here.
*Cross-Platform Audience is the number of New Zealanders who have read or accessed individual newspaper content via print or online. Print is net readership in an average 7 days. Online is net readership online in an average 7 days.