Herald takes big double in new readership survey

The Weekend Herald has stretched its lead as the country's best-read newspaper - and the Wednesday edition of the Herald has pushed the nationwide Sunday Star-Times into third place.

Results from Nielsen Media Research for the year to June 30 show the Weekend Herald is read by 628,000 people aged 15 or over each week, down 7000 on a year ago but equal with its readership for the last survey, to December.

The Wednesday edition, which includes the popular Viva, SuperWheels and Herald Homes sections, has 592,000 readers, up 8000 on the figures for December.

The Sunday Star-Times has fallen by 54,000 in the past year to 578,000.

The Herald on Sunday, with a total readership of 319,000, outdoes the Star-Times in the Auckland and northern region markets. It has 201,000 readers in the city and 293,000 in the wider area, 9000 and 17,000 more than its rival.

The average readership for the Herald over six days is 549,000. The next highest daily newspaper is Wellington's Dominion Post with 255,000.

The National Business Review remains under the 100,000 mark for the third successive survey, recording 96,000 readers aged 10 or over and only 36,000 in Auckland. The revamped Independent Business Review opens its account with 30,000.

Magazine figures confirm the NZ Woman's Weekly as the best-read title, at 953,000 for those aged 10 or over, ahead of Woman's Day, 893,000, and New Idea on 533,000. The TV Guide fell by 67,000 readers to 790,000 and computer titles took a dip - ComputerWorld down 23 per cent to 37,000 and NetGuide down 17 per cent to 141,000.

Food and lifestyle titles were mixed. Cuisine was down 10 per cent to 364,000, NZ Home & Entertaining down 22 per cent to 109,000 and Your Home and Garden down 9 per cent to 273,000. But NZ House & Garden was unchanged at 639,000 and the Healthy Food Guide began with 103,000.

Metro had 154,000 readers, a drop of 12,000.