News readership 2023: 96% of Australians remain engaged with news

ThinkNewsBrands and Roy Morgan Total News figures show 20.6 million Australians over the age of 14 engage with news every month.

The latest release of Total News readership shows 96 per cent or 20.6 million Australians continue to consume news in a four-week period.

While general, breaking news dominates news consumption with 95 per cent of Australians reading general news, there is a high level of cross-pollination to special interest categories with 70 per cent of general news readers reading three or more categories including property, sport and lifestyle.

ThinkNewsBrands executive general manager Vanessa Lyons said: “Every week more Australians read the news than drink coffee or eat fresh vegetables. This readership data reaffirms that news provides a powerhouse of audience engagement and consumer readiness. The figures show that Total News not only delivers guaranteed scale, but also a primed audience ready to buy with 41 per cent of news consumers considered heavy users of the channel.”

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.

Total News is defined as Australians aged 14+ reading news in print and/or news in digital. Digital news includes Australian publishers’ news websites/apps, Apple news and non-Australian-owned news. It also includes ABC news and Google news.