Once were newspaper readers

After hearing Newsweek lost 51 percent of its print circulation in the space of just five years, London-based digital media blogger Martin Belam looked at UK newspaper performance. He found the British print newspaper market declined 27 percent over the same period.

How do New Zealand newspapers compare?

The Audio Bureau of Circulation publishes comparable numbers for New Zealand's three large daily metro papers and the two main Sunday papers: The NZ Herald, Dominion Post, Christchurch Press, Sunday Star-Times and the Herald on Sunday.

New Zealand's newspaper market shows different characteristics

This is not a direct comparison, The Herald on Sunday was just getting started in 2007 and that had a big impact on its direct rival The Sunday Star-Times.

During the five-year period, the five big New Zealand papers collectively shed 16 percent of their readers.

The biggest loser was the Sunday Star Times. It was down 28 percent, while the Herald on Sunday increased its circulation by 11 percent. The Dominion-Post is down 19 percent while the New Zealand Herald and the Christchurch Press are down just 15 percent.

Among these titles Fairfax newspapers lost ground to APN titles.

So, for now at least, New Zealand’s newspapers are holding up relatively well by international standards although the scale of the market here is so much smaller. We're moving away from printed newspapers, but not as fast as the readers other English speaking nations.