News

News Ltd tops for online news; Fairfax leads on pages; NineMSN browsers grow fastest

Australia’s three biggest online networks all have something to boast about according to the latest Nielsen data covering up to the end of the financial year.  

Looking at Australian domestic traffic, the Fairfax Digital network can claim the most page impressions in June, with just over 750m PIs. This is followed by the News Digital network on just over half a billion and the NineMSN network at just under half a billion.

However, the News Digital Network has seen the biggest PI growth over the last 12 months – up by 35% to Fairfax’s 26% growth and NineMSN’s 23%.

Network     PIs June 2008; PIs June 2009; Change

Fairfax        593,081,202     745,199,109      +26%

News          377,282,786     510,713,402     +35%

NineMSN     378,976,447    465,449,832      +23%

But in unique browsers, the NineMSN network saw the biggest growth, up by 47%, from 10.5m in June last year to 15.4m in June this year. News Digital was close behind, up 43% from 9.7m to 13.9m. And Fairfax was up 21% from 10.2m to 12.4m

In terms of engagement. NineMSN saw by far the biggest growth, with total time spent on the network by users up by 110%. News was up 61% and Fairfax 53%.

Within the news & weather category, the News Digital Media network has a growing lead – up by 39% on a year before to 9.7m UBs. Fairfax and NineMSN were both up by 34% to 8.4m and 6m respectively.

News Digital was top for page impressions in the news & weather category – up 37% to 393m in June 2009 compared to a year before. But NineMSN saw the biggest growth – with PIs up by 71% in the category to 121.8m. Fairfax was up 53% to 369m.

Fairfax won the news & weather category in terms of time spent, clocking up 28,461,199,000 seconds of engagement in the news & weather category in June 2009 – up 87% on a year before. News Digital has 20,479,723,000 seconds – up 77% and NineMSN was well behind on 5,082,427,000 seconds, up 33% on a year before.

The figures were compiled on behalf of News Digital Media. The chief executive of the company’s Media division, Michael Robinson, said a factor in the growth had been dramatic stories such as the Victorian bushfires and the US elections. he said: “At a time when people are debating the future of journalism, once thing is clear – people want the news, and when big stories break, they turn to trusted sources.”

In a pointer towards an accelerating trend, News said that video streams had increased by 60%.

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