What you need to know:

• SMH notches cross platform average audience of 8.5 million people.
• The Age follows close behind with six million readers.
• But The Australian makes biggest gains, adding 500,000 per month in final quarter.
• "Discrete" figures for The Australian show October to December boost.
• Minor player The Saturday Paper enjoys audience growth of 300,000.

Latest Roy Morgan data suggests significant audience growth for Australia's large mastheads as well as some of the quality independents.

Across 2020, The Sydney Morning Herald retained its position as the biggest masthead, with Roy Morgan figures putting its average cross-platform readership of 8.5 million.

Per the research firm, SMH is closely followed by stablemate, The Age which registered an average six million readers over the course of the year. The Daily Telegraph racked up a cross-platform audience of over 4.9 million while The Australian and the Herald Sun followed close behind with 4.8 million and 4.5 million eyeballs, respectively.

The numbers are devised as an average, taken from any given four-week period in the year January to December, and are extracted from all publisher platforms including digital and print.

In its 2020 findings, Roy Morgan reveals that a “look at the discrete quarterly figures for the leading mastheads” show strong growth for The Australian, which increased its four-week cross-platform audience by more than 500,000 between October and December alone. “These are the most consistent and largest increases of any masthead,” said the research firm.

October to December 2020 also proved strong for several masts including the Sydney Morning Herald, Financial Review, Adelaide Advertiser, Courier Mail and The Saturday Paper – all of which saw audience increases of at least 50,000. The Saturday Paper, meanwhile, enjoyed audience growth of 300,000 between March and December 2020.

Are Media recorded a burst of audience growth with the ‘Now to Love’ website which sees content consolidated from Australian Women’s Weekly, Woman’s Day, TV Week and Take 5. In 2020 the site attracted an audience of 2.3 million Australians in an average four-week period.

News Corp’s Taste.com.au Magazine registered a total audience of more than 3.1 million through 2020; New Idea reaches an average of 2.5 million, while Better Home & Gardens garnered 1.9 million readers.