KEY POINTS:
A month after winning the title Newspaper of the Year at the Qantas Media Awards, the Herald on Sunday has recorded a surge in readership of 13.1 per cent - 43,000 more readers over the past 12 months.
This is the largest increase of any newspaper in the country, cementing the Herald on Sunday's title as New Zealand's fastest-growing paper.
The Nielsen Media National Readership Survey which analysed readership from April 2007 to March 2008, marked the Herald on Sunday's jump as "statistically significant". Editor Shayne Currie said the results were recognition of the loyalty of the newspaper's growing readership, especially in the Northern Region (north of Taupo), where it is now the most-read Sunday paper.
The results were most marked in Auckland, where readership grew 14 per cent - five times the rate of Auckland's population growth of 2.8 per cent. More than 60 per cent of Auckland Sunday newspaper readers now read the Herald on Sunday.
"In the three years since the launch of the Herald on Sunday, the newspaper has found its voice, attracting new Sunday newspaper buyers to what is the most competitive newspaper market in the country," Currie said.
"We owe a huge debt to those who stuck with us in our early days, and to those readers who have picked us up for the first time, or more frequently, over the past 12 months. We've listened to what readers liked - and didn't like - and evolved accordingly."
Other titles owned by APN also recorded big jumps in readership in the Nielsen survey including the New Zealand Herald, up 6.1 per cent (34,000 readers) and the New Zealand Listener up 6.8 per cent (19,000 readers).
