The Australian Financial Review is the country’s most read premium business masthead recording a cross platform readership of 3.4 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 fourth consecutive quarter of growth, and a year-on-year increase of 9%. Meanwhile, The Australian has seen an annual drop of 13% for the same period.

The Monday to Friday print edition recorded massive annual growth of 50% year-on-year, and quarterly growth of 10% for an average issue readership of 245,000. 

With the AFR Weekend Saturday print edition readership of 192,000 once again posting huge annual growth of 67%, and 7% in the last quarter, the weekend and weekday print editions have recorded their fifth consecutive quarters of growth and their highest quarterly result since December 2018. 

The Australian Financial Review Magazine continues to dominate Australia’s monthly magazine insert figures, with a print readership of 495,000, which has seen quarterly growth of 3% – its third consecutive quarter of growth – and annual growth of 16%. It’s the AFR Magazine’s highest quarterly growth since 2018.    

Nine’s Total Publishing assets reach a de-duplicated audience of 16.4 million* Australians across print and digital.

The Financial Review’s Editor in Chief, Michael Stutchbury, said he was encouraged by the solid recovery in print readership, particularly for AFR Weekend. 

“While the big growth in digital readership during the pandemic has eased back amid the cost-of-living crunch, the Financial Review’s digital-only readership still lags that of only The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age among newspaper brands.

“All this was consistent with another 8 per cent growth in premium subscriber numbers for the Financial Review over the financial year,” Stutchbury said.   

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 June 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, August 21, 2023