Rotorua Daily Post celebrates readership increase

The Rotorua Daily Post has seen an increase in readership. Photo / File

More people are reading the Rotorua Daily Post.

The paper's average issue readership has increased from 16,000 in the 12 months to the end of 2017 to 17,000 for the year ending March 31, according to the latest Nielsen readership survey.

The Daily Post's website, rotoruadailypost.co.nz, also has 62,000 average weekly unique browsers (Nielsen Market Intelligence Domestic Traffic, May 2018).

Regional editor Scott Inglis said the readership growth reflected the strong local content the Rotorua Daily Post delivered across the week.

"The Daily Post editorial team works hard to bring our print and digital audiences the latest and best in local news and views. They are proud to serve their readers.''

General manager Greg Murphy said the readership result, combined with the digital audience, provided an attractive opportunity for advertisers to reach thousands of potential customers.

Sister NZME regional papers Hawke's Bay Today and Northern Advocate also recorded increases while the Wanganui Chronicle and Bay of Plenty Times are stable.

The New Zealand Herald's readership is soaring in print and online - with newspaper readership returning to 2014 levels, according to new statistics released today.

Daily print readership of the Herald is up 11 per cent on the previous quarter and up 8 per cent year-on-year - now at 459,000 readers each day, according to the Nielsen survey.

The Weekend Herald's readership, according to latest Nielsen data, has surged to 515,000 people - the first time since June 2014 it has been over the half-million mark.

And the Herald on Sunday has extended its lead over its nearest rival, the Sunday Star Times - the Herald on Sunday now has 359,000 readers, 95,000 ahead of the SST.

Kiwis are also spending big chunks of their weekend reading these two papers - on average people spend 49 minutes on a Saturday poring through the Weekend Herald, and 44 minutes with the Herald on Sunday.

Daily print and digital brand audience for nzherald.co.nz has soared to a record 1.051 million people; and weekly audience has lifted to 1.668 million, also a record high.

Readers are also continuing to flock to the Herald's stories on social media - with the company's Facebook page reaching an average of 843,000 users a day.

NZME managing editor Shayne Currie said the readership growth showed New Zealanders valued premium journalism and that newspapers continued to play a valuable and essential role in people's lives.

"We have a fantastic team of editors and journalists who do an outstanding job producing top-level content across all platforms.

"It's very easy for a typical media business to focus on one or two platforms - the beauty of NZME is we're building audiences and producing our journalism on all levels, including print, digital, social, radio and video.

"There's even more exciting times ahead, as we fully focus on expanding our premium journalism, and building a deeply engaged audience."