Mr Miller said the new approach “reinforces” the transparency of the readership currency metric, which is independently audited, as “as advertisers become even more focused on trusted, brand safe environments for their campaigns”.

In recent years, digital giants like Facebook and Google have become significant competitors for advertising to traditional news organisations.

Increasing scrutiny on major digital platforms, data scandals and the deletion of fake profiles could see some brands reconsidering their approach to online marketing, he said.

Facebook deleted 583 million fake accounts in the first three months of 2018, about a quarter of its 2.2 billion monthly active users, and has come under fire about fake political news from Russian trolls and the harvesting of millions of users’ profile data by Cambridge Analytica.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission recently held public forums in Melbourne about the digital platforms for advertisers, media buyers and consumers to discuss concerns around privacy, transparency, choice and brand safety.

“Perhaps this news is enough to stimulate some advertiser discussions [about] whether they might be better off directing 25 per cent of their advertising budgets to more trustworthy media channels,” Mr Miller said.

On the Emma measure, The Sydney Morning Herald ranked as the highest-reaching title, with 4.75 million readers, followed by The Daily Telegraph with 4 million readers and the Herald Sun with 3.95 million.

The Australian and The Age came fourth and fifth with 3.3 million and 2.92 million readers respectively.

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Metro newspapers’ readership totalled 10.2 million people, with regional and community news media brands read by 6.4 million people.

News Corp has revealed it is in talks to sell some of its community and regional mastheads, though has not specified which titles are being considered. Those in its stable include the Geelong Advertiser, News Local, Community Newspaper Group, Messenger, Quest Community News and Leader Community News.