Recent data from Roy Morgan shows that Total News Publishing now has a readership of 21.7 million Australians aged 14 and over, and despite the pressures of the cost of living crisis, less than 1 percent of readers cancel their paid news subscriptions.

By comparison, data from the National Australia Bank shows that 37% of Australians cut their streaming services and 33% cut their subscriptions to magazines, apps and other goods and products in the third quarter.

The data suggests a stable and habitual relationship between readers and news: 64% of news consumers read three or more categories of content each month and nine out of ten access up to four different titles.

While “General News” remains the most read category with 93% of the population, other categories also have high readership: the “Real Estate” category attracts 66% of readers, “Sports” 55% and “Lifestyle and Health” 53%.

“Readers aren’t scrolling past the news, they’re accessing multiple news brands and content categories each month and engaging repeatedly. ‘News readers’ are the highly engaged, attentive audience advertisers are looking for,” said Vanessa Lyons, CEO of ThinkNewsBrands. “That Australians continue to seek out news during a cost of living crisis really proves how important it is to them. It also demonstrates readers’ habitual relationship with news and the reliable, regular, highly engaged audience they can offer advertisers.”

ThinkNewsBrands, the news media industry association, is responsible for the accurate and representative measurement of readership across print and digital media. Its shareholders include Nine, News Corp Australia and Seven West Media’s Western Australian newspapers.

The data also showed that Australians with high net worth (over $1 million in savings and/or investments) are 28% more likely to read the news than the average Australian. Paying news readers are 24% more likely than the general population to own a home, more likely to try new products and services, and 25% more likely to be big spenders.

Total News Publishing, measured by Roy Morgan Single Source, Australia’s largest representative consumer survey of Australians aged 14 and over, includes Australians aged 14 and over who read print and/or digital news, including news websites/apps owned by Australian publishers, Apple News, non-Australian owned news, ABC News and Google News.

According to the figures, News Corp Australia’s new.com.au was the most read new brand across all platforms with an average monthly readership of 11.7 million, followed by Nine.com.au with 9.3 million and ABC News with 8.2 million.

With 7.2 million readers, Nine Publishing’s The Sydney Morning Herald was the most read cross-platform print news brand, followed by sister magazine The Age with 4.63 million and News Corp’s The Australian with 4.1 million.