Newspaper Circulations
February 15th, 2011 at 1:00 pm by David FarrarJust been reading the latest circulation figures for our major newspapers. The changes in the last year are quite stark. They are:
- Herald on Sunday up 5,801 (+6.4%) to 96,069
- NZ Herald up 240 (+0.1%) to 170,677
- The Press down 1,988 (-2.4%) to 81,017
- ODT down 1,458 (-3.6%) to 39,097
- Sunday Star-Times down 6,939 (-4.1%) to 160,592
- Dominion Post down 4,053 (-4.6%) to 84,047
- NBR down 473 (-4.9%) to 9,093
- Sunday News down 11,287 (-17.9%) to 51,740
Fairfax has to be worried by these results. The two major APN titles have increased or held steady and the main Fairfax newspaper titles are all dropping.
Sunday News especially is in freefall. Over two years it has lost 31,385 subscribers which is a massive 38% fall. It won’t remain viable if those trends continue.
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February 15th, 2011 at 2:20 pm
The Herald has actually lost 70,000 copies since I worked there… a shocking fall considering the massive increase in population in Auckland.
The DomPost has lost 15,000 since I ceased working there… and the circulation it has is padded significantly by huge numbers of “free” copies circulated to schools and given away at Te Papa, the zoo and Vic.
What is missing from the newspapers is quality content. They are full of crime and celebrity… cheap and easy to produce but utterly banal.
Vote:February 15th, 2011 at 2:20 pm
The last SST I saw was inside a longdrop, torn up in a pile for use as toilet paper.
Vote:February 15th, 2011 at 2:22 pm
maybe the far left thing isnt working for the sunday star time… maybe they will fix that in the relaunch
Vote:February 15th, 2011 at 2:22 pm
Quality of the papers generally poor, no surprises.
Vote:February 15th, 2011 at 2:30 pm
I suppose the NZ Herald figures are padded by the thousands of free copies they give to schools?
Vote:February 15th, 2011 at 2:42 pm
I am surprised that the SST is doing as well as it is.
Vote:I got an offer about two and a half years ago for a free six month subscription. It was free so I accepted. In fact the kept delivering it until about six months ago. I would skip through it but not really read it as the content was pretty much rubbish.
They finally rang me up and told me I would have to start paying for it or they would stop delivering it and I would miss out on my Sunday entertainment.
I don’t think that they were terribly impressed when I told them that the subscription I had been paying, ie zero, was exactly what I thought the paper was worth.
February 15th, 2011 at 2:44 pm
If the Herald sack Chris Barton, Brian Fallow, Brian Rudman, Carolyne Meng and all other uninformed leftie journos there, then I will consider re-subscribing. SST has got a good contributor there, Michael Laws.
Vote:February 15th, 2011 at 2:46 pm
berend and the Dom post by medical practices other than the Friday paper for the racing section it is the only other time I see it.
Vote:February 15th, 2011 at 2:49 pm
SST has got a good contributor there, Michael Laws
These days, Micael Lhaws really is a fellow full of faeces.
Vote:February 15th, 2011 at 2:49 pm
The Dom Post looks more and more parochial by the day.
Some of its weekly columnists are hacks (Karlo Mila, Linley Boniface), others extremely boring (Colin James, Vernon Small), and good guest writers such as Karl du Fresne’s are a bright exception to the rule.
The Saturday magazine has little or nothing to read and the whole daily edition takes a few minutes to browse. So little quality articles or analyses, but a chaotic mix (cut & paste) from different sources.
No wonder the paper keeps losing subscribers and circulation is going down.
Vote:February 15th, 2011 at 2:57 pm
Well Manolo, I don’t know about all your hacks and boring columnists but one at least has gone.
Vote:Linley Boniface’s last column was published yesterday.
February 15th, 2011 at 3:02 pm
Over the last 2 years the Herald has fallen 10,000 in circulation, according to Waddington National Radio today. So the slight rise (190) this year is nothing against the 2 year figure.
Vote:February 15th, 2011 at 3:04 pm
Poneke, I think you’re wrong there. Michael Laws speaks the truth. The points he makes in his regular columns is something that I’ve been saying to people in my community here in Auckland for some years, ie, stop breeding if they can’t afford to raise those children, stop pushing their children to church activities because that makes the kids uninspired to do anything meaningful in life (believe me, most kids want to grow up to be church priests), live within your means and don’t ask fro handouts from anyone else, don’t blame the society for their own shortfall, etc,… I’m saying this, is because some of my relatives are in the situations that Michael Laws described in his regular columns.
Since, you don’t believe in psychics Poneke, I reckon that Michael Laws has been reading my mind over the years even though I’ve only said hello to him once along Ponsonby road on his way to Radio Live. So, it’s not that I have just followed Michael Laws opinions on SST to influence my thinking, but I’ve tried to help out my communities in the last 8 years or so to break out of poverty cycles. The sad thing is, my relatives & certain members of the Tongan community in general do labeled me as a black muthe*fuck*r, trying to think like a white person even though I protested that logic and the way one thinks has got nothing with that. The reason we (us islanders) have come to NZ to find a better life and I have adapted, you know, adapt or die, but majority of members of my community have not adapted. They still think like as we’re still in the island.
Vote:February 15th, 2011 at 3:05 pm
Do they include the piles unsold next day that have their masthead cut off for the refund in countless outlets around nuzilan before they go in the yellow bin, or is it net.
Vote:Alas they don’t get any of my brass for their ink.
Journalism is a vastly overused word and has no credibility. remember Bernstein and Woodward, couldn’t happen now.
February 15th, 2011 at 3:07 pm
I reckon that Michael Laws has been reading my mind over the years even though I’ve only said hello to him once along Ponsonby road on his way to Radio Live
You are very clever, FF. You are not a fellow full of faeces at all. You should really start your own blog. It would be as big a hit as Danyl’s. Of that I don’t need to be psychic to predict.
Vote:February 15th, 2011 at 3:51 pm
Also I think the HOS is mainly focused on the upper north island, well that’s how they started, I think you will find they have higher circulation than SST in Auckland
Vote:February 15th, 2011 at 6:47 pm
Falafulu Fisi (790) Says:
February 15th, 2011 at 3:04 pm
That’s the reason the Nats. have sent Hone Carter up there. He knock some sense into them.
Vote:February 15th, 2011 at 7:52 pm
I reckon the newspaper business is basically dead, at least in the form it’s practiced in NZ. My pick,
Vote:- we’ll move to a handful of mostly web-based “newspapers” that offer high quality news, analysis and opinion. Mostly international.
– A bunch of very low quality local rags, mostly used for wrapping fish and chips, and probably given away instead of sold. The Dom Post is on their way to that level already
– Blogs and other non-mainstream media for much of the local analysis – fundamentally the free analysis on the web is usually better than the (poorly) paid for analysis in the newspapers
– Some syndicated type news services – they’ll just give news, no opinion. And eventually they’ll be replaced by news aggregators, who’ll be aggregating citizen created media – blogs, twitter etc
February 15th, 2011 at 9:13 pm
I may buy a copy of the SST to check it out now that they’ve ditched those whining bleaters Braunias and Finlay Macdonald, but I doubt that I will ever subscribe to it again.
Vote:February 15th, 2011 at 9:44 pm
I see what you did there…
Vote:February 15th, 2011 at 10:32 pm
I eagerly await the launch of FOX News NZ: Newspaper Edition…
A newspaper of the view of the Telegraph, Spectator group of publishings would be good…
Vote:February 15th, 2011 at 10:43 pm
some weekly blog picks and a few good comments wouldnt go a miss..
Vote:February 16th, 2011 at 12:11 am
Think you are overstating it, sure numbers are bad, but it still holds a large lead over its rival HOS which has been around now for 6 years. Surprised they manage to keep such a lead considering its the only fairfax paper you get in Auckland really, so it doesn’t have the advantages of having a sister paper like the NZ herald does.
Vote:February 16th, 2011 at 10:00 am
I agree with Jimmy Harris — a Fox News New Zealand type publication, a Telegraph type newspaper would be very welcome. I find the Sunday Star Times relentlessly left-wing, in its reporting as well as its opinion pieces.
Similarly the Dominion Post — for example yesterday they had a column by Peter Singer, the so-called ethics professor who in reality is a promoter of killing infants. He should be renamed professor of barbarism.
So such extremist publications as these have become a turn off for the general public in my opinion. They don’t represent commonsense opinion but rather the worldview of the elite chattering classes who unfortunately dominate our media still.
Vote:February 16th, 2011 at 11:00 am
Like I said Jeff HOS Leads in ak
Vote: