After a couple of years which have been – to say the least – challenging, some New Zealand news publishers have delivered spectacular growth in both print and digital.

Readership figures show that among them, the Otago Daily Times was up an impressive 50,000 (+20 per cent) to an audience of 304,000, the Northern Advocate up 35,000 (+33 per cent) to 142,000 and the Taranaki Daily News up 31,000 (+29.7 per cent) to an audience of 137,000.

The figures come from the Roy Morgan readership results for print newspapers for the 12 months to December 2021.

Some 2.9 million – or 69.5 per cent – of New Zealanders aged 14 or over now read or access newspapers in an average seven-day period via print or online (website or app) platforms. In addition, almost 1.8 million New Zealanders aged 14+ (42.5 per cent) read magazines whether in print or online either via the web or an app.

Most of the top ten newspapers grew their total cross-platform audience in 2021, with New Zealand’s most widely read publication being the New Zealand Herald which had a total cross-platform audience of 1,844,000 in the 12 months to December 2021.

Stuff.co.nz – holding its position as New Zealand’s leading news website – appears in the list as a single entity, but brings together newspaper mastheads including the Dominion Post, The Press and Sunday Star-Times, as well as magazines such as TV Guide and NZ Gardener. The total digital audience for Stuff in an average seven days is over 1.75 million, up nearly 40,000 on a year ago, and more than 200,000 ahead of rival NZHerald.co.nz on 1.55 million.

Other newspapers to increase their total cross-platform audiences during 2021 included Hawke’s Bay Today, up 19,000 (+12.4 per cent) to 173,000, Bay of Plenty Times, up 4,000 (+3 per cent) to 149,000, and Waikato Times, up 2,000 (+0.9 per cent) to 195,000.

In Roy Morgan’s “top ten”, the Dominion Post is in second place with an audience of 408,000 readers, ahead of Stuff stablemate The Press at fourth place on 272,000, and followed by the Sunday Star-Times on 216,000. Most of Stuff’s newspapers grew their total cross-platform audiences during 2021 led by the Waikato Times, Taranaki Daily News, Southland Times, Nelson Mail, Sunday News and Timaru Herald.

Figures for NZ magazines showed increases in print readership for both New Zealand Listener – temporarily suspended during 2020 – and AA Directions increase their print readership during 2021. After its relaunch, the Listener showed “impressive growth” in 2021, up 36,000 to an average issue readership of 221,000, but still eclipsed by AA Directions which rose 9000 to 374,000.

Morgan also reported “strong results” for NZ House & Garden – up 18,000 to 110,000 – Habitat (100,000) and Dish (92,000).

Top 10 Newspapers – Total 7 Day Cross-Platform Audience (Print & Online)