The Australian Financial Review is the country’s most read premium business masthead recording a cross platform readership of 3.5 million people, according to Total News readership figures released by Roy Morgan today.

More than 1.1 million people have read a print edition of the Financial Review in the last four weeks, with the masthead experiencing its third consecutive quarter of growth, and a year-on-year increase of 6%. Meanwhile, The Australian has seen an annual drop of 17% for the same period.

The Monday to Friday print edition recorded massive annual growth of 42% year-on-year, and quarterly growth of 11% for an average issue readership of 222,000, compared to a yearly decrease of 5% for The Australian. 

With the AFR Weekend Saturday print edition readership once again posting significant annual growth of 59%, and 11% in the last quarter, the weekend and weekday print editions have recorded their highest quarterly result since 2018.      

The Australian Financial Review Magazine continues to dominate Australia’s monthly magazine insert figures, with a print readership of 481,000, which has seen a quarter on quarter growth of 12% and annual growth of 14%. This is AFR Magazine’s highest quarterly result since 2018.  

Nine’s Total Publishing assets reach a de-duplicated audience of 16.6 million* Australians across print and digital.

“After the hit from COVID-19, it’s encouraging to see readers return to the newspaper edition of the nation’s premium business, finance and political publication,’’ said the masthead’s editor-in-chief Michael Stutchbury.

“That’s an endorsement of the newsroom’s journalism, including our breaking and ongoing pursuit of the PwC tax scandal.

“At the same time, the Financial Review continues to hold the most digitally-focused readership of any newspaper brand as we increase our share of that national market.” 

The Total News readership figures are produced by Roy Morgan for ThinkNewsBrands. 

Source: Roy Morgan Research, All People 14+. All audience data is based on the last 4 weeks averaged over the 12 months to March 2023.

*This figure includes: Nine.com.au, SMH Print & Digital, The Age Print & Digital, AFR Print & Digital, Brisbane Times, WA Today, Domain Digital, Good Weekend VIC & NSW, Sunday Life VIC & NSW, Domain NIM VIC & NSW, AFR Magazine

For further information, please contact: 
Adrian Motte
Senior Communications Manager – Trade & Publishing
amotte@nine.com.au

Monday, May 22, 2023