Online audiences for The Age and Herald Sun drop year-on-year while the ABC sees growth
The online rankings among major news sites remained relatively stable last month with News.com.au retaining its top spot while the Daily Telegraph bumped the BBC out of the top ten.
The latest figures come as an analysis by Mumbrella of year-on-year performance of the major news websites show the big online winners of the last 12 months have been the ABC (up 14 per cent), the Daily Mail (up 16 per cent) and The Guardian (up 10 per cent).
However The Age, Herald Sun, Yahoo7 and Ninemsn all suffered audience declines during the year.
Mumbrella’s comparison of Nielsen June data in 2014 and 2015
Ninemsn was down 19 per cent year on year, as it approaches the one year anniversary of the end of its deal with Microsoft which saw it serve as a default page for many Australian users.
Yahoo7’s news websites were down 25 per cent year on year while Fairfax’s The Age fell 13 per cent and its major competitor, News Corp’s The Herald Sun, saw a 25 per cent decline.
In the year on year comparisons market leaders News.com.au and Smh.com.au were both relatively stable.
Year on year performance comparisons are now statistically valid as it has been more than 12 months since online audience measurement company Nielsen underwent a major methodology change.
According to Nielsen, outside of the top 10 in June were Buzzfeed (which is classified in a subcategory of News but not in the main rankings) with 1.756m, The Courier Mail had 1.29m, The Australian 1.099, The Huffington Post, which is due to launch soon had 1.032m while super industry funded news website The New Daily had 411,000.
The June Nielsen figures showed an additional one million people visited a site in the Financial News & Information sub-category compared to the same period last year, a rise of 23 per cent.
John Price, a director in Nielsen’s Media Industry Group said the growth was likely due to the end of financial year.
“Almost one-third of the online Australian population now consume financial related news content,” he said. “Almost all of the top 10 players in this sub-category reported double digit growth, indicating an increasing interest in the local and global economy and a strong demand for finance related content.”
Nic Christensen
The Nielsen June rankings
Source: Nielsen
Some of these sites have paywalls (Fairfax, News Corp). Are the figures from a year ago pre or post paywall. Obviously would not be valid to compare paywalled traffic today with non-paywalled traffic a year ago
User ID not verified.
Not surprisingly, all of those that have grown YoY traffic are free sites (ie no paywalls). Most of those that have gone backwards have restricted access ie paywalls. The very notable exceptions to this rule are ninemsn and yahoo7 which, despite remaining free, have suffered big drops in traffic. Where does 9news.com.au sit traffic-wise ?
User ID not verified.
Don’t have to be a conspiracy tin foil hat wearing type to see that plainly this is the reason for the unrelenting and now farcical campaign against ABC.
I recall the decades when the national broadcaster (TV and radio) was mocked mercilessly for being “uncommercial ” and lampooned for its stodgie programming and James Dibble types. After revamping and working to deliver what an Australian audience – rural, regional and urban – want, now it is being attacked for being “too commercial”!
Interesting to note the BBC is also suffering similar attacks from the same Murdoch interests.
And yet the answer for an enterprise such as Foxtel and other Murdock businesses is to get on with addressing market demands. Make the right content available to the right market at the right price (and that can include a premium charge) and hey, Presto! They will be doing brisk business.
User ID not verified.
“Ninemsn was down 19 per cent year on year, as it approaches the one year anniversary of the end of its deal with Microsoft which saw it serve as a default page for many Australian users.”
Important to note that as MI9 they still sell that audience….
User ID not verified.
We will continue to move to the ABC to avoid the woeful new click-bait writing style.
User ID not verified.
@Cannes(d) Laughter considering this made today’s Australian the conspiracy is real http://www.theaustralian.com.a.....7439187414
User ID not verified.
Hi Canned laughter, whilst i agree that news corp should get on with it with less whinging more doing and move more completely to a digital first focus (rather than newspaper first). i also believe that their is some legitimacy in their argument. they are a commercial business having to show returns to investors, what have the ABC spent and continue to spend to rework and deliver their digital presence? and if its X per year would the ad market cover these cost (highly doubtful) ? and if they were to charge or create some hybrid model would this work ?(dont know but many are trying to do this with varied success) . So my concern here is that the public funded success of ABC diverts eyeballs and therefore revenue from commercial companies potentially risks the destruction of existing media (fairfax and news corp) to the detriment of us all (i prefer more voices and more investigative journalism that less) and further places barriers to new entries to grab audience. Sorry for the long winded response, i want a well funded public broadcaster but we equally need to mindful not to establish a ‘public’ monopoly.
User ID not verified.
Jim,
A great post- I agree with you. We need lots of competition and views but it would seem Murdoch is too busy whining and not getting on with business.
Mulls- too true.
The paywall model is a tricky one isn’t it?
What about sites such a Crikey? How do they fit into the mix growth-wise etc.?
User ID not verified.
liam
13 Jul 15
1:27 pm
You are still measuring the same variable. With or without a paywall it’s irrelevant, this is about audience.
A decrease is what demonstrates the effect a paywall has on a sites total unique audience
So unless you’re ranking only paywalled sites or only “free” sites the figures remain valid. This anticipated drop in audience, and bragging rights on rankings like this, is exactly why publishers dragged their feet on establishing paywalls for a year-or-five.
User ID not verified.
Paywalls are irrelevant. In any case the ffx paywalls don’t work in mobiles.
User ID not verified.
Liam, these numbers simply highlight the effect a paywall may (or may not) have had on traffic.
User ID not verified.
FFX gives you 30 free articles a month.
Unlimited free articles a month if you know how to delete your cookies.
User ID not verified.
Firstly it is getting a lot harder to distinguish between news, journalism, reporting, blogging, agglomerating, opining, propaganda and branded content. And it’s only going to get harder. What we are seeing is more competition and variety and that will mean the old guard will loose viewers, it’s inevitable. Huff Post, Crikey, Guardian, Buzz Feed, The Conversation are all good new legitimate ‘news’ sites.
The ABC remains popular because it does a good job and because it is essentially OURS. The more Abbott/Murdoch attack it the more most Aussies will want to defend it and will seek it out.
Sites like the Herald Sun are essentially back to front sports sites. Why would you wade through all the Liberal Party Propaganda when you can go directly to Cricket.com.au or…
What we are seeing is fragmentation. I just hope that in depth, well researched, investigative journalism still has a place in the mix.
User ID not verified.
Not saying the audiences for paywalled and non-paywalled sites shouldn’t be compared. But it is an important factor in audience size – a bit like comparing FTA TV audiences with Pay TV audiences.
Also very relevant when comparing YoY changes in audience of the various sites. The fact that paywalled sites – except for SMH – have gone backwards from pre-paywall days can hardly surprise anyone. What is surprising /worrying for the publishers concerned is that free sites ninemsn and yahoo7 have fallen even more sharply
User ID not verified.
I do enjoy these regular reminders and examples of the slow and continuing death of the Murdoch press in this country.
I just hope Ripe is forced to shutter them for financial reasons before he shuffles off this mortal coil.
They’re all gone a week after he dies anyway.
User ID not verified.
the age has a paywall????
oh, cookies
User ID not verified.