Fresh Roy Morgan figures show Total News Publishing readership is reaching 21.8 million Australians ages 14+ on a monthly basis, with high net-worth Australians being more likely to read news brands.
The research found that high-income Australians are 26% more likely to engage with news brands and paying readers are 25% more likely to be homeowners or big spenders in comparison to the general national population.
Paying news readers are also 75% more likely to travel within the next 12 months to luxury locations.
They are also 96% more likely to read five or more categories and are 69% more likely to read five or more special interest categories in an average month.
Readers across the board are also engaging with multiple categories within the month, with 64% of readers engaging with at least three categories within any given month.
Chief executive officer of Think News Brands, Venessa Lyons told Mediaweek this data points to advertisers being able to use news publishing to reach any audience they are after.
“Audiences aren’t scrolling past news; they’re accessing multiple news brands and content categories every month with repeated interactions,” she said.
“‘News readers’ are the highly engaged, attentive audience advertisers are looking for.”
Lyons said Australian's current commitment to keeping up with the news proves how much of an asset it can be to advertisers.
“Continuing to seek out news in a cost-of-living crisis really proves the importance Australians place on it,” she said.
“At a time when ROI has never been more important, the data shows news delivers the prosperous and ready-to-buy audiences that can make marketing campaigns a success.”
The top categories for news readership are general news (93%), property (66%), sport (55%) and lifestyle and health (53%).
Many categories are seeing a rise in readership thanks to new events including the US election, the King’s visit, reality TV finales and a swag of music events and conferences causing a surge in online audiences.
One in two readers are engaging in both digital and print news each month with audiences reading the news (53%) more than watching (51%) or listening (30%).
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