The Australian remains the top national newspaper by readership, which includes digital readers, achieving a record audience in   May, according to the latest statistics.
An 11.2 per cent increase on the prior three-month period, published in official Enhanced Media Metric Australia (EMMA) data out today, shows the News Corp Australia brand had more than 3.4 million print and digital readers in   March - an all-time high. 
The strong performance was boosted by comprehensive federal election coverage including the launch of a live blog, and State of Play, an interactive tool that enabled readers to model election outcomes based on Newspoll data.
The initiatives show how the continued shift by readers to electronic devices is not only forcing newspapers to change how they deliver the news but enabling measurement body EMMA to capture growing multi-platform audiences.
The Australian this week sweetened subscription packages by offering free access to The Wall Street Journal at no extra cost as the paper reached a subscriber milestone.
Monday to Friday circulation recently surpassed 170,000 total paid sales for the first time in the newspaper's history, driven by a 14.5 per cent year-on-year rise in digital subscribers.
The Australian Financial Review, published by Fairfax, also put on a double-digit increase, up 10.6 per cent to 1.7 million readers, although it failed to keep pace with The Australian, which now has twice as many readers as it closest peer in the national premium market. The AFR, like The Australian, operates a paywall that limits non-subscribers' access to digital editions.
Overall, News Corp Australia reached almost 15.5 million Australians, or 86 per cent of the Australian population aged over 14.
If combined with community titles, the publisher's audience reached 16.1 million Australians, or 89 per cent of the country's population aged over 14, keeping ahead of Facebook's 15.3 million Australian users.
In Melbourne, News Corp's The Herald Sun delivered a solid result, up 2.6 per cent to 4.5 million people, to outperform Fairfax Media's The Age - up 1.7 per cent to 3.6 million people.
In Sydney, The Daily Telegraph slipped 1.9 per cent to 4.4 million people, although the paper fared better on a month-on-month basis, with a slight rise at 0.8 per cent.
Across town, The Sydney Morning Herald, published by Fairfax, pushed readership up by 5.4 per cent to 6.1 million people.In Brisbane, The Courier-Mail saw readership slip by 0.5 per cent to 2.9 million.