Aussie news sites engaging users longer than their US peers
Australian news sites have a much higher level of engagement with their readers than their US counterparts, new data suggests.
An analysis of Nielsen Online data seen by Mumbrella indicates that readers spend much longer every month on Australian sites than American users do with theirs. And they spend the most time with the two Fairfax masthead sites The Age and the Sydney Morning Herald.
In April, smh.com.au users spent an average of 49.7 minutes per month on the site – up from 31.7 minutes during the same period in 2008. And users spent 43.1 minutes per month with theage.com.au – up 107% on April 2008.
The site with the next largest monthly engagement was the independently owned Business Spectator with 42.2 minutes per month.
News Ltd’s news.com.au followed with 29 minutes.
Other News Ltd properties include The Australian (21.7 minutes); Melbourne’s Herald Sun (21.6 minutes); Adelaide Now (16.2 minutes); Sydney’s Daily Telegraph (15.9 minutes); Brisbane’s Courier Mail (14.7 minutes); Perth Now (12.1 minutes).
However, other Fairfax sites are less sticky. Brisbanetimes attracts just 9.3 minutes of users’ time each month and WAtoday just 6.1 minutes.
The West Australian – now allied to Kerry Stokes’ Seven empire – also has relatively healthy engagement attracting users for 26.4 minutes per month.
Only two Australian news sites are judged to have gone backwards according to the numbers. Fairfax’s Australian Financial Review is engaging users for 6.7 minutes per month, down 2% on a year before. And ninemsn’s National Nine News site is down 5% to 6.7 minutes per month.
By comparison, the best known American papers generally attract users for shorter periods each month. NYTimes.com clocks up just 29.6 minutes; Washingtonpost.com 10.5 minutes; USA Today 16.1 minutes. Not even the Star Tribune in Minneapolis – the US’s stickiest news site at 41.1 minutes per month – can outperform The Age, the SMH or Business Spectator.
However, while the figures are a useful indicator of a site’s engagement with readers, they are by no means the only metric – a particular story could temporarily drive a greater number of unique users who, if they do not return, would push down the overall average time.
- See the US-based Editor & Publisher’s take on the figures here.
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I think that’s quite instructive but still expected.
Content rules. The sites that have the richest content (SMH, Age) are stickier than those that have very little content.
I also think it’s Fairfax’s biggest mistake. Essentially EVERYTHING they do goes online for free, including features and long-form stuff, whereas News titles are much more selective in what goes online. Means people will stick with you longer online, but at what cost to your hard copy (where the majority of the revenue remains)?
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Interesting stuff. As Jason says, content rules.
It would be interesting to compare this to the latest newspaper or circulation results for the newspapers. From memory, the AFR had a loss of circulation AND a loss in online engagement. The worst of both worlds.
Is the same true for ninemsn – loss in tv viewership and online viewership?
This has to be good argument for getting more brand advertisers online using these news sites
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I’m not so sure that its deliberate with News Ltd though. For instance, the Mon-Sat Telegraph content is almost always reliably available. Yet it’s far more random for the Sunday Tele. Often as not, if i look to link to something that was in the print edition, it’s not online.
I don’t think it’s a policy though, I think it’s just that the S Tele guys aren’t as into it, so are a bit sloppier in making sure they get everything up.
I’d be interested if there was something more strategic behind it though.
Cheers,
Tim
I think even in individual verticals Australian readers engage very deeply with their favourite sites. One of the best ways you can measure this is through comments on articles.
For example, when the Federal Govt kicked Telstra out of the National Broadband Network tender process, ZDNet.com.au, Australia’s largest technology news site, received 177 comments on a single article: http://bit.ly/Et78U
This is just on one issue in the telecommunications industry, on an issue only Australians are interested in!
We’ve also recently begun to reach out to readers more directly in recent times; on Twitter, via email, comments on the site and even informal reader meet-up and drinks nights: http://bit.ly/11ot6G
Cheers,
Renai LeMay
News Editor
ZDNet.com.au
renai.lemay@zdnet.com.au
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No surprise – print media (and therefore online news) in Australia is a cartel, so there’s nowhere else for users to go to get their news. Don’t confuse “engagement” with “lacking other options”. Compare the competition that US and UK newspaper sites face for readership – dozens of newspapers and independent voices.
As much as the visitors to this site are tech-savvy, we must face the fact that blogs and independent news sites have not taken off in Australia except Business Spectator and some very niche verticals like technology. It’s a shame because the standard of Fairfax and News Ltd reportage in this country is very low and is completely derivative of overseas news. We need more competition in our newspaper sector to lift reporting standards and give users more choice.
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perhaps people are spending more time on the fairfax sites just to navigate around the new giant adds and that they have to look at 17 different pages is the story is more than 3 pars long.
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I agree with comment above – there’s such an abundance of quality sources that it fragments time spent with each title.
And unless users were using equal connection speed, its likely that the difference in internet connection speeds could also have a strong influence.
With blazing fast internet connections, sites load instantaneously for US users. Meanwhile here in Australia I sat and twiddled my thumbs as it took my computer 10 seconds to fully load the SMH homepage from my office broadband connection.
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