Dom Post readership plummeting

Bob Jones drew my attention to the Roy Morgan readership data which has come out for 2020.

They show a stark difference between the two major daily newspapers. Here’s the change from 2019 for both:

• Print: Herald -17% Dom Post -27%
• Online Herald +10% Dom Post -12%
• Combined Herald +4% Dom Post -15%

It is no surprise print readership is down for both. But the Herald has grown its digital readership (despite a paywall) and impressively also overall readership.

The Dom Post has not just had a 27% drop in print readership but also a 12% drop in online which gives 15% overall.

I am not surprised by this. The Dom Post and Stuff has gone in the last year or two from a mildly centre left newspaper to a newspaper so woke and leftish that it is no surprise that readers have given up reading what has often become a daily lecture on how bad we all are.

They do have many good journalists and stories, but the overall tone is so offputting that the readers have deserted in droves.

A scientific poll done by Curia in mid 2020 found NZers regarded Stuff as the most left leaning new sites of the six major media outlets. What was interesting is both centre right and centre left voters said they thought Stuff was left leaning.

The Dom Post and Stuff have of course every right to be a woke left newspaper. They presumably think there is a market for people to be lectured daily on climate change and racism. And there is a market, but the Roy Morgan data shows it is a rapidly shrinking market,