Record numbers for Herald

The NZ Herald’s weekly brand readership has surged past the magic 2 million mark — and readership of the Weekend Herald newspaper alone is at an 18-year high.

The extraordinary news events of the past 12 months have seen audiences turn to the NZ Herald — and its informative, trusted and quality journalism — in record numbers online and in print.

The latest news readership insights — released yesterday by Nielsen — show more than 2.1 million New Zealanders engage with the

Herald each week.

Daily NZ Herald print newspaper readership is now at 612,000 — a 35 per cent year-on-year increase and its highest in 17 years.

The Weekend Herald’s readership of 720,000 is at an 18-year high.

The Herald’s magazines are flourishing: combined

Travel readership has grown to

488,000 a week, Saturday’s Canvas magazine to

346,000, and

Viva to 267,000.

Website

nzherald.co.nz is also on a high — it’s now spent six consecutive months as the numberone news website in New Zealand, with almost 1.9 million unique browsers for the month of January.

NZ Herald Premium digital subscriptions continue to grow, totalling more than 102,000, including 53,000 paid digital-only subscribers.

And NZME’s regional newspapers have increased readership by 26 per cent (versus the same time last year).

“With the incredible uncertainty and disruption created during 2020, New Zealanders sought news and information from trusted sources in which they can have confidence,” NZ Herald editor Murray Kirkness said.

“It’s also been pleasing to see continuing growth in the number of young people connecting with our journalism. In a typical week, the number of Kiwis aged between 18 and 29 reading NZ Herald content has grown by 69,000 to 224,000. This reinforces a trend we noticed last year, as younger audiences sought out news and information from credible and trusted organisations.”

NZME CEO Michael Boggs said: “Last year showed the growing engagement New Zealanders have in local journalism and story-telling produced from within their communities. Our editorial teams continually work hard to earn the trust of Kiwis and as New Zealand’s Herald we remain accountable for every story we print, post and publish.”