News

NineMSN takes top Australian news website spot as Daily Telegraph beaten by Courier Mail

Nielsen Top 10 January 2013Nine Entertainment Network owned news website NineMSN has regained the number one online news website crown from rival smh.com.au, bucking the trend of a traditional fall in numbers during the holiday period.

According to the Nielsen Online Ratings for December NineMSN’s audience had a small increase from 2.885m to 2.887m in December, as the number of unique visitors fell away from the Sydney Morning Herald’s site and News Corp Australia’s News.com.au.

The Mail Online, which has just started to post some local content ahead of a full launch this year in Australia, held on to tenth spot, although it dropped from 1.316m readers in November to 1.132m for December.

However, The Guardian remains outside the top ten, in 12th spot behind the Daily Telegraph (1.093m) with 1.074m readers.

Hal Crawford, editor-in-chief of NineMSN said: “This is all about the readers – so thanks to the hundreds of thousands of people who get their news from NineMSN. We’re committed to giving them the most engaging stories we can, and we’re committed to remaining free.”

December also saw Brisbane’s Courier Mail enter the top 10 news websites, as its audience remained stable while other sites dropped off ranking ninth in the survey with 1.134m, taking the place of fellow News Corp title The Daily Telegraph which had 1.136m visitors in the November ratings.

Smh.com.au dropped from first to second place after just one month at the top as its audience decreased from 2.885m in November to 2.693m last month.

And News.com.au, which consistently held the prized number one spot from May until November last year, saw its unique visitor numbers fall from 2.885m to 2.667m.

Monique Perry, Nielsen’s head of media for Australia, said it was typical for Australian news sites to see falls in visitor numbers during the holiday period, but NineMSN had bucked the trend.

The three sites, along with Yahoo!7, were again close, Perry said, with all reaching between 16-18 per cent of the audience.

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