Circulation vs Readership

I blogged on Tuesday the media readership figures for 2007.  Now someone has kindly pointed me to the latest circulation figures also.  Now what is the difference you may ask?

Readership figures are generally compiled from random polling.  Ask 10,000 adult NZers which newspapers they read, and then you extrapolate that against the adult population so have readership figures.

Advertising prices tend to be based on readership.

Circulation figures, as I understand it, are basically an auditor going through the accounts of a publisher and verifying the number of newspapers being printed and paid for. So it should be more accurate than readership, but not necessarily more important.  It affects subscription revenue but advertising revenue for most media is bigger.

Readership will always be higher than circulation as more than one person reads a newspaper often.

So did readership changes mirror circulation changes?  Not much.  Below is the circulation change and readership change for each major paper:

• Independent Financial Review +26%, -13.9%
• Herald on Sunday +1.1%, +5.8%
• Waikato Times +0.1%, +1.1%
• The Press n/c, +4.5%
• Dominion Post -0.1%, -3.6%
• NZ Herald -0.8%, +3.0%
• ODT -2.5%, -3.6%
• Sunday News -4.3%, -11.2%
• Sunday Star-Times -4.4%, -2.9%
• National Business Review -5.5%, +12.0%

The IFR result is puzzling.  Their circulation increased by a quarter yet less people say they are reading them. Maybe their name change confused people in teh readership survey?

NBR is a bit the opposite direction.  Their circulation is down, but readership up strongly.  This may be that more people are reading communal copies, such as in offices etc.