The latest data from Roy Morgan has shown that Total News Publishing now has a readership of 21.7 million Australians aged 14 and up, with less than 1% of readers cutting paid news subscriptions despite the pressures of a cost-of living crisis.

By comparison, National Australia Bank data shows 37% of Australians cut back on a streaming service and 33% on subscriptions for magazines, apps and other goods and products in the March quarter.

The data suggests a resilient and habitual relationship between readers and news, with 64% of news consumers reading three or more content categories each moth and nine in ten accessing up to four different titles.

While General News remains the most read category at 93% of the population there is high readership across other categories, with the Property category drawing 66% of readers, Sport pulling 55% and Lifestyle & Health hitting 53%.

“Audiences aren’t scrolling past news, they’re accessing multiple news brands and content categories every month with repeated interactions. ‘News readers’ is the highly engaged, attentive audience advertisers are looking for," said CEO of ThinkNewsBrands, Vanessa Lyons. “Continuing to seek out news in a cost-of-living crisis really proves the importance Australians place on it. It also signifies the habitual relationship readers have with news and the reliable, regular, deeply engaged audiences it can provide advertisers.”

ThinkNewsBrands, the industry body for news media, is responsible for ensuring accurate and representative measurement of news audiences across both print and digital written news mediums. Its shareholders are Nine, News Corp Australia and Seven West Media’s West Australian newspapers.

The data also revealed that high net worth Australians ($1m+ in total savings and/or investments) are 28% more likely to read the news than the average Australian. Paying news readers are 24% more likely than the general population to be homeowners, more likely to experiment with new products and services, and 25% more likely to be big spenders.

Total News Publishing, measured by Roy Morgan Single Source, Australia’s largest consumer survey representative of Australians aged 14+, includes Australians aged 14+ reading news in print and/or news in digital, including Australian publishers’ news websites/apps, Apple News, non-Australian-owned news, ABC News and Google News.

According to the figures, News Corp Australia's new.com.au was the most read cross-platform new brand, with an average monthly audience of 11.7 million, followed by Nine.com.au with 9.3 million, and ABC News with 8.2 million.

Nine Publishing's The Sydney Morning Herald was the most read multi-platform print news brand, with a readership of 7.2 million, followed by sister masthead The Age came with 4.63 million, and then News Corp's The Australian with 4.1 million.