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Smartphones lead in news growth

Smartphones were the fastest-growing platform for reading and watching news in 2015, while tablets were stagnant, new survey figures show.

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Source: AAP


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More Australians than ever are getting their news via their phone, with smartphones the fastest-growing platforms for news consumption last year, figures show.

The use of smartphones to read and watch news media grew eight per cent in the year to November, 2015, the latest emma (Enhanced Media Metrics Australia) media survey shows, with readership on mobiles rising to 3.6 million.

The figure for tablets was slightly lower, at three million readers in November - unchanged year-on-year.

PCs and laptops still dominated the digital news space, with 9.8 million readers, but were down three per cent over the year.

Newspapers remained the most popular news medium, with 13.8 million people reading papers in November, although readership fell six per cent over the year.

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Newspaper Works CEO Mark Hollands said the growth in smartphone readership showed no signs of stopping as newspaper publishers continued their focus on delivering stories to mobiles.

"I expect we'll see this trend continue well into 2016," Mr Hollands said.

"Despite the ongoing growth of digital, print newspaper readership remains strong, with 77 per cent of Australians reading a print newspaper every month."

Emma figures for November show Fairfax Media's Sydney Morning Herald had the largest audience - 4.9 million - of readers across print and digital platforms, followed by News Corp Australia's Herald Sun (4.117 million) and The Daily Telegraph (4.116 million).

The Daily Telegraph had the largest print audience, with 2.77 million readers a month, followed by the Herald Sun (2.7 million) and the Sydney Morning Herald (2.1 million).


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