The organisation said it is initiating a tendering process after a review of how readership is measured in other countries and consultations with both publishers and advertisers.

CEO Tony Hale said: “The global media landscape is rapidly changing and it is of vital importance to the newspaper industry to be able to access the best possible measurement information to keep pace with the changes in consumer behaviour and gain a deeper understanding of of how consumers interact with the medium.”

Further details on the tender are expected soon. It is likely to include requests for tendering companies to provide measurement of newspapers across multiple platforms including print, online and mobile content technologies.

Local media reports peg the cost of the new survey at an estimated $3m-$5m a year. Its possible the survey will have to compete against existing readership studies already carried out by Roy Morgan Research – though the agency’s CEO has said it will consider whether to tender for The Newspaper Works contract.

The Media Federation of Australia (MFA), The Australian Association of National Advertisers and the Advertising Federation of Australia will all be involved in the process, and the MFA’s chairman Gary Hardwick said: “The open tender process will address the areas we have raised with The Newspaper Works and factor in these areas to provide a readership measurement system that can compete with the best-practice systems established elsewhere.”