News Ltd reveals readership details of newspaper sections

News Ltd has today released details of its study into how readers consume various sections of its publications.

The Sectional Reader Study was based on an online questionnaire of 14,108 respondents across Australia. It was conducted by Newspoll, which is co-owned by News Ltd, late last year.

The study covers News Ltd’s five metro groups – Sydney’s Daily and Sunday Telegraph, Melbourne’s Herald Sun; Adelaide’s Advertiser and Sunday Mail; Brisbane’s Courier Mail and Sunday Mail and Perth’s Sunday Times – plus The Australian.

According to the study, the section most likely to be read are news pages on a Sunday, with more than 90% of readers saying they always or mostly read them. Least read are Sunday business pages with less than 30% of readers saying they always or mostly read them – the weekday figure is fractionally higher.

Among the metro highlights according to the study:

Average time readers perceive that they spend reading the metro papers: Weekday – 42.8mins; Saturdays 57.1 mins; Sundays 62.3 mins;
39.5% say they read or leaf through all or most pages on a weekday; 25.8% about three-quarters; 19.5% about half; 8.9% about a quarter; 5.1% less than a quarter;
Around 90% always or mostly read the news pages;
Just under 50% always or mostly read the sports pages;
55.3% say they always or mostly read the Escape travel section; 24% occasionally;
54.8% say they always or mostly read the Body + Soul section; 22.4% occasionally;
Around 40% say they always or mostly read the Confidential showbiz section; about 30% say they do so occasionally and 30% rarely or never;
71.4% say the always or mostly use the TV guide;
About 30% say they always or mostly look at the metro papers’ business sections; a further 30% or so do so occasionally; 40% say they do so rarely or never;
36.1% say they always or mostly read the personal finance pages;

Highlights of The Australian:

33.1% say they read most pages; 25.5% read “about three-quarters”; 21.7% read about half; 11.7% read about a quarter; 6.4% read less than a quarter;
Readers say they spend an average of 44.7 minutes with the weekday edition of The Australian and 61.9 minutes with the Saturday edition;
The most read weekday section of the Australian is the news section, which more than 80% say they always or mostly read. More than 40% say they always read the business section, sports section, IT section and wealth section. About 37% say they always or mostly read the higher education section.
If it was surveyed, The Australian has not revealed the readership of its media section.

Tony Kendall, director of sales for News Ltd said: “Some of the results of the study were a surprise.” He claimed: “More women read Confidential than the leading weekly women’s magazines. We also found that health and beauty is important to male readers who spend over ten minutes on average each week reading Body+ Soul.”

The move by News Ltd comes as debate continues to rage of readership metrics.

Newspaper Works – which is funded by newspaper publishers – has beenattempting to set up a rival readership study

to that run by Roy Morgan Research. Up to now it has insisted that it too will offer sectional information.

Kendall said: “The market place asked for accountability and we’ve invested heavily in this national study.”

Further sectional information will follow later in the year.

via http://mumbrella.com.au

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