It is starting to look like The Australian is becoming the most trusted news source in Australia.

"Overall readership of The Australian is surging, with total audience across print and digital editions growing more than 30 per cent over the past 12 months.

The remarkable growth throughout 2020 means The Australian is now read by 4.677 million people each month.

While The Australian’s paid digital audience continues its rapid growth, the print edition readership also increased over the past three, six and 12 months across all days of the week, and now boasts an average daily readership of 495,000 for its weekday edition."

That American Rupert's Rag! Pull the other one.

shifty & shady minister,

I suppose it is times like this that you wish YOU could read?

But, unfortunately for YOU that's just one of the pitfalls of being an injunear.

Hang on there. The ABC will be getting the pouts: they claim to be the most 'trusted source', with only about a third of the public having anything to do with them.

Of course, like most institutions in Australia, The Australian has moved to the left, so it could be a contender for a good source of lies and instructions on how to think. But, with a readership of only 4.7million, there are many millions of Australians not relying on it for a daily brainwashing

"While The Australian’s paid digital audience continues its rapid growth"

I wonder how many of that digital audience was delivered to the Australian's website by Facebook?

Maybe the government should be extorting funds from the Oz to pay Facebook rather than the other way around.

Mr Uneducated,

I'm glad that you remain illiterate and if you were numerate you could count without using your fingers. However, being incompetent over many fields you can't afford to buy any reading material and have to resort to reading the inside of public toilet doors.

shifty & shady minister,

I'm glad you mentioned reading in toilets because I remember seeing writing above a toilet roll holder at uni saying 'ENGINEERING DEGREES. TAKE ONE'.

shadowminister,

Some advice from Mark Twain....

"“Never argue with an idiot. They will drag you down to their level and beat you with experience.”

Only idiots argue. Expressing an opinion while we are still able to is good. Expressing our opinion of someone else's opinion is a waste of time. Nobody has ever said - on OLO, at least - "OMG. Thanks for telling how wrong I am. I will faithfully express your opinions instead of mine from this day forward".

Dear shadowminister,

How on earth does that translate into the most trusted?

Virtually all the newspapers have surged during Covid turning around a decreasing readership trend.

The Fairfax papers have not gone as well after the Nine takeover but even so the SMH still managed a 7% increase Dec 2019 - Dec 2020. The Townsville Bulletin is the standout with a 31% jump.

Part of the reason unfortunately is the shuttering of so many regional newspapers.

Thanks Steele, can rely on you to blast a hole in what our resident Murdoch sycophant would claim. A devotee of all thing Rupert SM can be relied upon to come up with some senseless nonsense when talking Rupert, he absolutely adores the old septic tank, second only to The Dangerous Doctor Donald in the SM love diary. Checked Roy Morgan, and true all the major print media have seen increased sale during covid, particularly weekend sales. After years of declining sales they have received an unexpected boost complements of the pandemic. As for a claim that "The Australian is becoming the most trusted news source in Australia" Maybe with higher sales SM's favourite, and a big subscriber, 'The Daily Telecrap' should be given the title as Australia's most trusted news source, after all its hosts such luminaries as Beat Up Bolt and Pissed Acherman, never forgetting the lovely Veranda Sublime must be included.

I feel sorry for anyone with time to read newspapers.

Try living life, it’s a great option.

Dan

Do they still sell newspapers, & if so where?

3 news agents in out nearest towns have shut in the last 3 years, & our local convenience store stopped bothering with them or magazines a decade ago.

I have no idea where I could get one today, if I was silly enough to want one.

SR and Pauliar,

People don't pay for newspapers they don't trust, and more people are paying money to read The Australian and associated newspapers than any others by a huge margin.

While there are a few left whinge extremists such as the greens that are allergic to facts that haven't been sanitised by left whinge journals such as the guardian, the majority of the people prefer reality.

Shonkyminister,

Your guru Rupert had visions of grandeur where he would be the unassailable master of a quality broadsheet read only by the true elite of society, the industrial moguls and financial kingpins in the tradition of a 'London Times' or a 'Wall Street Journal'. RM had a belief as a newspaper man he was in the mould of his father Sir Keith, destined for greater things than the production of mass circulation trashy tabloids which people of your ilk, being of the lower orders, consume with an insatiable appetite for the big boobs and footy results.

More than 50 years ago Rupert launched his dream, his Aussie national flagship, 'The Australian', a newspaper that has never ever returned a single cent in profit. No matter thought Rupert, I'll be remembered as one of the greats of broadsheet journalism. Unfortunately Rupert couldn't keep his grubby fingers of his new born baby, and the paper rapidly slipped into decline, attracting the riff-raff of readership such as you, incidentally is there the bikini girl on page 3, and Blockers footy results on the back? What else would attract you to a newspaper?

Pauliar,

I'm not sure whether you are psychotic or just a habitual liar but the consistency with which you post outright lies is astounding.

The Aus was Rupert's first paper, the profits from which he used to start his empire which is now worth about $16bn.

That you don't read The Aus is probably because it uses big words and doesn't have nude photos like the trash you normally read.

Papers - they are more opinion than news these days - are like renewable energy: they wouldn't exist without subsidies. Yet, everyone cheered when our semi-socialist PM bullied Google and Facebook into contributing to the outmoded business model - even those calling themselves "progressives".

Dear shadowminister,

You opinine: “People don't pay for newspapers they don't trust, and more people are paying money to read The Australian and associated newspapers than any others by a huge margin.”

I'm sorry but no.

While the Australian is a national broadsheet the comparison in Sydney is between the SMH and the Daily Telegraph.

The Telegraph's readership comparing Dec 2019 to Dec 2020 shows a notable drop in weekday sales while the SMH had a modest rise. Their numbers both rose for the influential Saturday edition but the SMH's sales well outstrip the Daily Telegraph's.

http://www.roymorgan.com/industries/media/readership/newspaper-readership

The standout for me was The Saturday Paper going from 117,000 to 205,000. It has the second highest 'Factual reporting” rating and is going from strength to strength.
http://mediabiasfactcheck.com/the-saturday-paper/

Oh dear shonkyminister has done it again, posting an UNTRUTH, did you get it from the 'Beat Up' Bolt column, or did you have an original thought and make it up yourself.

"The Australian was Rupert's first paper, the profits from which he used to start his empire" What a load of rubbish! THE AUSTRALIAN newspaper was first published 15th JULY 1964.

Following his Fathers death in 1952 Rupert Murdoch inherited THE ADELAIDE ADVERTISER, through News Limited, then followed the purchase of the SUNDAY TIMES in Perth, WA in 1956. Over the next few years Murdoch purchased several country and suburban newspapers, buying the Sydney DAILY MIRROR in 1960. Not up to 1964 yet!

Most Murdoch publications have been trashy tabloids such as the Daily Horror' and the 'Daily Telecrap' in Sydney other such rubbish in other Australian cities. Murdoch has gloried in playing the editorial puppet master with his rags, dictating paper political policy and editorial content. The sensational conservative tripe he publishes appeals to the hard right readers like shonkyminister who are happy to pay for such garbage. I stand corrected in the past 10 years The Australian made an operating profit of $13 million in 2017, all the other years were losses. hardy going to start an international media empire with those "profits" ah, shonky!

SR,

You are really struggling here, the telegraph sells nearly double the number of newspapers as the SMH, and that does not include the Sales of the Aus. The figures in Victoria are similar where the Herald sun outstrips the Age. The Saturday paper is at best an also-ran.

As far as factual accuracy no one beats the Australian.

Pauliar,

The Australian was the first newspaper that Rupert started in 1964 57 years ago yet you only look at the last 10 years of profits could you be more dishonest?

After inheriting and purchasing a few smaller local rags that were making losses RM turned them around before starting the first serious newspaper The Australian before starting to make serious money from advertising. This financed further newspapers both in Aus and overseas before going into TV etc. It shouldn't take a genius to realise that $16bn of value didn't come from nowhere.

This week its all about how the papers owned by Murdoch are not faring so well and are being overrun by the woke-ist papers.

Coupla months hence, when the puppet-masters have decided on a new theme, all the woke crowd will be complaining about how much influence Murdoch has since his papers have such a great reach.

This might help some to understand.... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doublethink

Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose

Dear shadowminister,

You write: "You are really struggling here, the telegraph sells nearly double the number of newspapers as the SMH".

Well no it patently doesn't.

Taking the Roy Morgan December figure the Daily Telegraph sells 405,000 per week day plus 414,000 for Saturday and 689,000 for Sunday giving a total of 3,128,000 for the week.

The SMH sells 355,000 per week day plus 479,000 on a Saturday and 435,000 on a Sunday giving a total of 2,689,000.

This means the Telegraph outsells the SMH by about 16%. Why on earth have you inflated this to "nearly double"?

Blatant exaggerations are no way to win an arguments old boy.

Paul1405,
You complain about Shadow's mistake but then make a very similar one yourself!
>...in 1952 Rupert Murdoch inherited THE ADELAIDE ADVERTISER, through News Limited,
No, it was its rival THE ADELAIDE NEWS, hence the company name.

News Limited eventually had to sell off The Adelaide News when they bought The Adelaide Advertiser. The Adelaide News went bust about thirty years ago.

Apologies Aiden, got the name of the Adelaide newspaper incorrect, correcting the record, THE ADELAIDE NEWS and not THE ADELAIDE ADVERTISER, essentially similar, daily mass produced newspapers. But you can see what SM had to say is total bunk, Murdoch owned many papers well before he started The Australian. The only other year this century The Australian made a small profit as far as I can tell was 2008. Back last century it was well known as a loss making concern, overall its never made one cent, but it was Rupert's love child and he kept it going.