ABC News chasing news.com.au for top spot, as sports dominate July
News Corp’s news.com.au has once again drawn the largest online news audience in the country, with 12.3 million Australians spending time on the site in July.
ABC News has managed to add over half a million readers for the month, with 11.2 million visitors to its site. News.com.au saw a slight drop-off in numbers from June, but managed to sit 1.16 million ahead of the national broadcaster.
According to Ipsos iris, who crunched the numbers, consumption of news ballooned in the month, due to the NRL State of Origin and the Ashes, the rental crisis, the Voice Referendum, the Logies, the death of Sinead O’Connor, and the first ten days of the FIFA Women’s World Cup.
The Australian fell out of the top ten in July, after making its debut in the rankings the previous month – the first time a website with a hard paywall had cracked the top ten.
This heavy sports focus was certainly reflected in Fox Sports’ online numbers, which jumped by over 600,000 in the month.
Lisa Muxworthy, editor in chief for news.com.au, said record audiences came to the site in July to read its sport coverage.
“July was a huge month for sport with Wimbledon, the explosive Ashes series, Daniel Andrews scrapping the 2026 Commonwealth Games, and the start of the Matildas incredible World Cup campaign – all on top of our regular NRL and AFL coverage,” Muxworthy said.
“There are few things that unite Australians like sport so it is great to see record audiences heading to news.com.au for all the moments they might have missed. Australians know we will always have the talking points covered.”
20.1 million Australians used news websites and apps, in July, with people spending an average of five hours a month consuming news content.
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Nathan Jolly is the Deputy Editor of Mumbrella. He joined the team in July, 2023.
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