CIRCULATION & READERSHIP – June 2007

Friday, August 17, 2007

FAIRFAX MEDIA PUBLICATIONS CIRCULATION AND READERSHIP RESULTS FOR NEWSPAPERS,
INSERTED MAGAZINES AND WEBSITES – TO JUNE 2007

ANOTHER GREAT YEAR FOR THE AGE


DEAR READERS,

Newspaper sales and readership figures released today confirm The Age as one of the best performing newspapers in the country.

Figures from the independent Audit Bureau of Circulation and Roy Morgan Research show The Age's audience is growing strongly in print and online.

This follows The Age last week winning the coveted PANPA Newspaper of the Year Award for all-round excellence in the Asia-Pacific region.

The Age now has the highest weekday readership in 14 years – 749,000 – an additional 25,000 readers over the past year and growing. In addition, we attract 215,000 unique browsers online to theage.com.au each day, which means our overall readership has never been greater.

Compare this large and growing audience with free-to-air TV programs. The Age's Melbourne audience is bigger than any TV program screening in Melbourne and nearly twice the size of any of the nightly news programs.

Importantly, in the key AB demographic, which measures readership by income, education and occupation (i.e. professionals), our lead over the Herald Sun has strengthened considerably on weekdays and Sunday, with The Age winning huge market share gains. The Age's AB lead on Saturdays over The Weekend Australian and the Herald Sun is now 324,000 and 154,000 respectively, which is why we are the first choice for advertisers.

On Sundays, we continue to break records with The Sunday Age posting a readership of 732,000 – an additional 33,000 readers over the past year - making it the fastest-growing Sunday newspaper in Australia. Saturday's readership is 954,000, which is 0.6% down on the year, but up in the latest quarter.

Underpinning our readership is a strong circulation performance. Sales are up on all days of the week. Our weekday circulation is at its highest level in almost 10 years. Monday to Friday circulation is growing strongly to 207,000, Saturday is up to 301,000, and Sunday has posted a sales record – 225,000.

We trust you are enjoying the improvements we have made to our online service, which is now the No. 2 online newspaper site in Australia (after our sister paper The Sydney Morning Herald). Each month the site attracts an average 2.6 million unique monthly browsers or 66 million page impressions, which is growth of 51% over the past year. Our lead over the heraldsun.com.au and theaustralian.com.au is 1.48 million and 1.67 million unique monthly browsers respectively.

The latest sales and readership figures show that newspapers that are producing quality journalism, connecting with their communities and embracing the new multimedia environment, are thriving.

However, while these figures are pleasing, we are not complacent.
We are working hard to bring you an even better paper. Thank you for your ongoing support.

Andrew Jaspan, editor-in-chief


DON CHURCHILL
CHIEF EXECUTIVE AND PUBLISHER
VICTORIAN METROPOLITAN AND COMMUNITY PUBLISHING

These are outstanding results and confirm a positive trend over the past two years which culminated in The Age winning the 2007 PANPA Newspaper of the Year Award for all-round excellence.

Circulation is growing strongly across all days of the week. The Age's weekday circulation has reached its highest level in almost 10 years.
Readership on weekdays is at its highest level in 14 years while The Sunday Age continues to be the fastest growing Sunday newspaper in the country.

The Age's AB advantage over its nearest competitor has strengthened considerably on all days but especially on weekdays and Sunday.

Please click here to download further statistics.

Source: Fairfax Media
Release Date: 17 Aug 2007 00:00