readership

American  

[ree-der-ship] / ˈri dərˌʃɪp /

noun

readerships plural

1. the people who read or are thought to read a particular book, newspaper, magazine, etc..

   The periodical has a dwindling readership.

2. the duty, status, or profession of a reader.

3. (especially in British universities) the position of instructor or lecturer.

4. the state or quality of being a reader.

   appealing to a higher level of readership.

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readership British  

/ ˈriːdəʃɪp /

noun

1. all the readers collectively of a particular publication or author

   a readership of five million

   Dickens's readership

2. the office, position, or rank of university reader

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• readerships
  plural

Etymology

Origin of readership

First recorded in 1710–20; reader + -ship

Explanation

Readership is another way to talk about all the readers of a particular book or periodical. If your online magazine has a readership of five, and one of them is your mom, it's not a roaring success. A newspaper, website, or author's readership is their audience — it's the group of people who regularly read their publication. The local zine writer might have a readership in the dozens, while the Harry Potter books have a vast readership, numbering in the millions. When newspapers and magazines started to lose their readerships, many turned their attention to online versions.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

readership readerships

Garden & Gun, the Southern culture magazine, recently delivered its first wedding issue to its male-leaning readership.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 19, 2026

It bought HuffPost in 2021 to bolster its readership and offerings to advertisers.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 12, 2026

Not only has a slew of HR complaints tempered her icy remarks, but slashed budgets and declining readership have forced her hand.

From Salon ● May 6, 2026

He arrived vowing to carry out a digital transformation, stem financial losses and reverse a decline in online readership.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 8, 2026

As children of their own societies, these early historians naturally emphasized the culture they knew best, the culture their readership most wanted to hear about.

From "1491" by Charles C. Mann

The Rothermeres’ acquisition of the Telegraph would bring together two right-leaning publications that target different readerships.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 22, 2025

But by the 60s they, and especially Owen, had found large new readerships.

From BBC ● Nov. 10, 2025

But it has yet to fall his way, often going to writers with smaller readerships, like this year’s winner, Norwegian Jon Fosse.

From Seattle Times ● Oct. 20, 2023

While translators deserve credit for giving Chinese readerships a glimpse into Britain's former socio-cultural mores, their strategies sometimes failed to connect food culture in Austen's era to contemporary Chinese culture.

From Salon ● Sep. 24, 2022

Because BuzzFeed and HuffPost appeal to different readerships, they should complement each other as part of the same company, Mr. Peretti said in an interview on Thursday.

From New York Times ● Nov. 19, 2020