Herald confirmed again as best-read newspaper

A new readership survey confirms the Herald is the country's best-read newspaper.

Nielsen research shows the Herald is read by 586,000 people aged 15 and over on an average day and that the Weekend Herald and the Wednesday and Thursday editions are individually the top-three-read papers in NZ.

The March readership figure is up 3000 from the previous survey for the year to December, while off 7000 from a year ago. Nielsen says neither movement is statistically significant.

The Herald's readership is more than double its nearest daily competitor and bigger than that of all other metropolitan papers in New Zealand combined. As the recession has hit, readers have turned to the Herald in increasing numbers for financial analysis and information, with readership of the Business Herald increasing every day of the week at an average of 13 per cent growth year on year.

The paper's magazine inserts also had strong gains - the Weekend Herald's canvas up 1.4 per cent to 423,000, Viva on Wednesday up 14 per cent to 304,000 and the Tuesday edition's Travel tabloid up 20 per cent to 244,000.

In the Sunday market the Herald on Sunday, with 371,000 readers, remains number one north of Taupo and within Auckland, well ahead of the Sunday Star-Times and Sunday News.