Newspaper Reading Day-by-Day


Source: Roy Morgan Single Source, January – December 2010.


William Burlace, Roy Morgan Director, Media Services says:

“Sundays are generally the biggest day of the week for readership, as the extra leisure time encourages the indulgence of reading in bed, over a coffee, etc.  Saturdays are also strong for similar reasons along with their classified real estate and employment offerings.

“In the weekday mix, Friday is generally strongest (as the majority of the working populace gets ready for weekend sporting and leisure opportunities) followed by Wednesday.”

There are variations in these patterns between different mastheads. For example, readership of the Sunday Telegraph is dramatically higher than Daily Telegraph readership on other days of the week whereas its sister publication the Herald Sun is fairly consistent across all days of the week.  (Interestingly, the Herald Sun is stronger on Friday than Saturday or Sunday.) The Sydney Morning Herald has higher readership on both Saturday and Sunday (the Sun-Herald) while for the Age, Sunday is not as strong as Thursday, Friday or Saturday - perhaps due to the Sunday Age being the only Sunday broadsheet.

An interesting aspect of the Sunday reading is that, while there are more men reading newspapers than women in absolute terms, this reverses on Sundays. The Sunday Telegraph, the Sun-Herald, the Sunday Herald Sun, the Sunday Age and the Sunday Mail (QLD) all have greater numbers of women readers than men. For the Sunday Mail (SA) and the Sunday Times (WA) the men/women split is virtually equal.

William Burlace comments:

“Newspapers are a dynamic medium encouraging active participation different from the passive relationship we associate with, say, viewing television. Audiences differ by day of week and by section of individual paper. When readers have more opportunity to indulge themselves - as on the weekend - newspaper audiences rise.”

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