Wairarapa Times-Age leading the way

The Wairarapa Times-Age has shown a positive circulation increase for the sixth consecutive period, an achievement unmatched by any other New Zealand newspaper over the same time. FILE PHOTO

The Wairarapa Times-Age once again leads New Zealand in the latest ABC-audited circulation results released yesterday.

For the sixth consecutive period, the Times-Age has shown a positive circulation increase, an achievement not matched by any other newspaper in the country.

During the past three months, the Times-Age's circulation increased 1.1 per cent, with the paper sitting 6.9 per cent higher than a year before - the highest circulation increase for newspapers in New Zealand.

The Times-Age's parent company, NZME, is the only company with newspapers showing circulation growth, with five of its regional papers, and the Herald on Sunday, having increased their circulation from this time last year.

The Dominion Post (Fairfax) lost 3.1 per cent circulation in the latest period and is down 9.6 per cent compared with a year ago.

Separately, Nielsen readership statistics showed the Times-Age increased its daily readership to 12,000 and the newspaper's community stablemate, Wairarapa Midweek, to be the most read newspaper in Wairarapa.

General manager Andrew Denholm says what makes the period-on-period growth impressive is that it's growth on growth. "It's incredibly hard to achieve compound growth so I'm really proud of the team," said Mr Denholm.

Editor Andrew Bonallack said he was proud to work for a paper that was supported so powerfully by its community.

"Every day I see comments on social media by those who want to find fault with reportage as we transition into the digital era," he said.

"We deal with real people, and this result demonstrates that it is those real people, in our community, who have the final word, not the keyboard warriors who don't live here, don't contribute and, ultimately, don't count."