Audiences accessing canberratimes.com.au on desktops and laptops have now passed the half-million mark, with 509,000 computer web users in the April survey period.

The latest Emma (Enhanced Media Metrics Australia) readership data for the year to the end of April shows the overall Canberra Times audience reaching 750,000, a 7 per cent increase on March and up 15 per cent since the measurement system was launched in June.

Computer web traffic to canberratimes.com.au through April was up 22 per cent on the previous month, while the number of people using a mobile device, such as a smartphone or tablet, to read Canberra Times content grew slightly to 126,000 - and still rank among the strongest-growing tablet and mobile audiences of major news brands over the past 10 months.

The Emma figures, issued this week, showed monthly print readership rose slightly to 250,000 people, with 78 per cent of The Canberra Times audience using digital channels and 12 per cent using both print and digital.

Nationally, the total newspaper audience remained at its highest level yet for the second consecutive month, reaching 16.4 million people, or 93 per cent of the Australian population aged 14 and over, across print and digital platforms.

The chief executive of industry body The Newspaper Works, Mark Hollands, said that while digital continues to deliver the stronger audience growth among news media brands, print journalism was still reaching 83 per cent of the population, or 14.7 million Australians.