News Ireland, publisher of The Times, Ireland Edition, The Sunday Times and The Irish Sun, today announces the first publication of new detailed research into its combined audience reach across print and digital platforms.

News Ireland is one of a number of publishers in Ireland to partner with research specialist Kantar Millward Brown for the new Readership Survey (Ireland) 2017-18. Fieldwork for the research was carried out by Kantar Millward Brown and is the first example of data fusion in the Irish newsbrands market - incorporating digital audience estimates from Comscore.

Richard Bogie, Managing Director of News Ireland, says: “News Ireland are proud to have collaborated on what is the first detailed, multi-platform reach analysis of the Irish public’s media-reading habits. Our media agency and client partners quite rightly want the very best data on which to base their planning and buying decisions. I’m confident the new Readership Survey - which provides the richest and most objective analysis in the marketplace - will become the new gold standard for audience analysis and cross-platform reach among newsbrands.”

The Readership Survey focused on whether participants consumed their media in print, online, via mobile phone, desktop or tablet - and which brands or outlets they read most regularly. A data integration was carried out by international specialists RSMB to incorporate digital audience estimates from Comscore and provide a 360 degree measurement of multi-platform audiences, for print and digital separately and in de-duplicated combination.

Debut findings of the Kantar Millward Brown Readership Survey (Ireland) 2017-18 show:

• News Ireland brands reach 1.8 million adults across Ireland each month across all platforms.  This is equivalent to 49% of the population reading at least one of our brands in a printed or digital format across the course of the month.
• 54% of the monthly audience still turn to a printed edition of the newspaper to be kept up to date with the latest news, sport and lifestyle stories.
• 6 in 10 monthly readers are now consuming our content on the go on their mobile giving them access to the latest breaking news and great interactive content.
• Men make up 54% of our monthly audience (984,000 adults) across all platforms.
• Every month 822,000 females turn to at least one of our brands for their news, showbiz and lifestyle content.
• More than 550,000 15-34 year olds consume content from our brands with 52% of 15-34 year old readers opting for a printed edition and 65% consuming content on a mobile device.
• Every month in excess of 1.25 million over-35's trust our content to keep them up to date with what is going on in Ireland and beyond. While 55% choose to read the content in a printed edition, 58% of this audience are now reading the content on a mobile device.

Richard adds: “The Kantar Millward Brown Readership Survey shines a spotlight on the power of our News Ireland brands. In combination, The Times, Ireland Edition, The Sunday Times and the Irish Sun reach almost half the Irish population every month across digital and print platforms. And the survey findings underline the fact that print remains first choice for more than half our consumers.”

Fieldwork took place between February 2017 and January 2018 and consisted of 7,000 face-to-face interviews at over 504 sampling points around Ireland, with participants answering a range of questions on their media preferences.

The resulting data will be made available to media agencies via industry-standard planning tools in the coming weeks.