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News.com.au holds number one news traffic ranking in April for fourth consecutive month - May 22, 2023
News.com.au has retained the number one news website traffic ranking for the fourth month in a row, reaching 12.71 million Australians in April.
The latest Ipsos Iris report showed the news website has resolidified its market-leading stance, although there was a three per cent dip month-on-month in unique audience. Average time on site per person, sitting at 29 minutes and 55 seconds, also slipped modestly compared to March.
Oliver Murray, news.com.au editor, pointed out April was a month when many should’ve switched off to enjoy Easter and the school holidays.
“It’s testament to our team that we kept serving up news they needed to read,” he said.
That content offering drew in the largest and most engaged audience in the news category, he pointed out – six in 10 online Australians.
“We saw a 17 per cent month-on-month increase in our sports audience to become the number one sports brand, driven by our NRL and AFL coverage,” Murray said.
“Australians also turned to us for travel news, reaching an audience of 2.541 million and leading the travel news category.”
The gap between news.com.au and rival ABC News, sitting in second spot, is sizeable. The national broadcaster’s web offering attracted the eyeballs of 11.14 million Aussies.
Rounding out the top five was nine.com.au with 10.73 million unique viewers, 7news.com.au on 10.06 million, and Daily Mail Australia on 8.35 million.
The Ipsos Iris report found 20.2 million people used a news website or app in April, with engagement increasing by 1.2% to almost six hours per person, per month.
Major news events ranging from the death of comedian Barry Humphries to the arrest of former US President Donald Trump and the federal budget helped fuel the increase, it said.
The report called out travel-related browsing in the month, given Easter and the school holidays, with 16.9 million Aussies aged 14 and above visiting a travel website or app in April.
Those in the 55-plus age bracket spent the most time browsing – 33% more than those under 55 – while women were more likely to use travel sites and apps than men. People aged 25 to 39 are the largest cohort engaging with travel content online.
(News.com.au)
News
Sydney Morning Herald is the country’s best-read masthead May 22, 2023
The Sydney Morning Herald has retained its position as Australia’s top masthead, with more readers across all platforms than any other over the 12 months to March this year.
Total News figures from the industry’s official data provider, Roy Morgan, showed 7.7 million people, or about one in three Australians, read the masthead. It puts the Herald ahead of its traditional NSW rival, the News Corp-owned Daily Telegraph, which has 3.98 million readers.
The Herald’s sister paper, The Age, cemented its place as the most-read Victorian masthead with 5.2 million readers, and the outlets’ Good Weekend magazine was the premier Saturday insert. It had an average print readership of 754,000 people, up 4 per cent for the quarter.
Print was a particular bright spot for this masthead, with the Monday to Friday newspaper recording 17 per cent growth year over year and quarterly growth of 4 per cent, taking its average readership per edition to 417,000. It marks the sixth consecutive quarter of growth for the physical newspaper, while the Sun Herald’s Sunday print edition was steady, up 1 per cent, to a readership of 423,000. In the last four weeks, an average of almost 1.9 million people read the printed paper.
The Herald and Age’s Good Food and Traveller titles had audiences of 1.49 million and 1.56 million, respectively, each month. Sunday Life had an average issue print readership of 419,000, and Domain defied a softening real estate market, seeing annual growth of 7 per cent and quarterly growth of 5 per cent, to record an average issue print readership of 537,000.
“I am proud of our team for achieving such a strong result, particularly given the challenging environment all publishers are finding themselves in right now,” Herald editor Bevan Shields said.
“The Herald continues to set the benchmark for quality journalism in Australia and I want to thank our subscribers and readers for their continued support for what we do.”
Roy Morgan’s data covers all news brands and digital news websites and tracks audiences on Apple News and Google News.
(The Sydney Morning Herald)
News
Financial Review most-read business masthead. By Sam Buckingham-Jones - May 22, 2023
The Australian Financial Review is the country’s most-read premium business masthead, reaching a print and digital audience of 3.5 million people, figures released by Roy Morgan show.
More than 1.1 million people read the print edition of the Financial Review over the past four weeks, and the masthead reported its third consecutive quarter of growth and a year-on-year increase of 6 per cent. The Australian suffered an annual drop of 17 per cent in print readership for the same period.
The Financial Review’s combined print and digital audience fell slightly from last quarter, from 3.6 million to 3.5 million, but the decline was smaller than rivals.
The AFR Weekend print edition readership grew 59 per cent, on the Roy Morgan figures, and 11 per cent in the last quarter. The weekend and weekday print editions have recorded their highest quarterly result since 2018.
The Australian Financial Review Magazine recorded a print readership of 481,000, after quarter-on-quarter growth of 12 per cent and annual growth of 14 per cent. This is AFR Magazine’s highest quarterly result since 2018.
“After the hit from COVID-19, it’s encouraging to see readers return to the newspaper edition of the nation’s premium business, finance and political publication,” said the masthead’s editor-in-chief, Michael Stutchbury.
“That’s an endorsement of the newsroom’s journalism, including our breaking and ongoing pursuit of the PwC tax scandal.
“At the same time, the Financial Review continues to hold the most digitally focused readership of any newspaper brand as we increase our share of that national market.”
Nine’s total publishing assets – including the Financial Review, nine.com.au, The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, WA Today, Domain Digital and more, reach a de-duplicated audience of 16.6 million Australians across print and digital.
ThinkNewsBrands, a group representing news publishers, says 16.5 million Australians read news each week and 20.6 million or 96 per cent of Australians read news each month.
The Total News readership figures are produced each quarter by Roy Morgan for ThinkNewsBrands.
(The Australian Financial Review)
