Digital audiences on the rise

Kirsty Simpson February 10, 2012

FAIRFAX will today unveil the first device for holistic measurement of audiences across print and online.

Fairfax Metro media chief Jack Matthews said it would give greater understanding of the audience breadth.

''As the logical next step following our restructure, this move is to give our stakeholders, including media agencies, advertisers, shareholders and analysts, a fuller understanding of how audiences are engaging with our major Metro Media brands,'' he said.

The report shows that the audience for The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, The Sun Herald and The Sunday Age had increased by 26 per cent over the past five years, giving Fairfax Metro Media an audience of 7 million. The source for its figures is Nielsen, Omniture, Audit Bureau of Circulations and Roy Morgan.

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But it comes as the Audit Bureau of Circulations figures show a decline in circulation for the papers, as Fairfax reassesses all promotional copies to ensure that they provide value to Fairfax. ''This is an intentional strategy,'' said Mr Matthews.

''We will no longer gauge our success or measure ourselves on a single-dimension or metric, but to look at how audiences are engaging with our brands across all platforms and time frames,'' he said.

Circulation of The Age's Monday to Friday editions fell 5.99 per cent in the three months to December 31 to 184,156, compared with the previous corresponding period. The Saturday Age fell 6.56 per cent to 263,047 and The Sunday Age dropped 3.77 per cent.

At The Sydney Morning Herald, circulation fell 11.94 per cent to 184,613, the Saturday paper fell 7.73 per cent to 314, 683, while The Sun Herald fell 8.17 per cent.

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The Herald Sun's Monday-to-Friday edition also fell 4.56 per cent, while the Daily Telegraph stemmed the losses to 1.84 per cent.

Circulation at News Ltd flagship The Australian rose against the trend, up 3.51 per cent Monday to Friday, while The Weekend Australian rose 1.63 per cent. Fairfax financial daily The Australian Financial Review dropped 3.28 per cent Monday to Friday, but rose 3.66 per cent on Saturday.

Mr Matthews said the explosion in digital platforms required a new method of collating the total audience.

''Our audiences consume our product at work, on the move and at home. And they all use our various platforms differently. We've learnt that people use the same content in different ways on different devices and at different times,'' he said.

''Having a report that measures our audiences across every platform shows where our business is heading in the future. We have been aggressively responding to structural decline in print publishing in metropolitan media markets.''