More than 20 million (20.3 million) people used a news website or app in February, according to Ipsos iris, Australia’s new digital audience measurement currency endorsed by the IAB Australia.
This is an increase over January of 0.2%. In addition, people are spending more than five hours per month in February, or 18 minutes a day, consuming news content. People aged between 55-64 spent the most time consuming news content at more than eight hours during February.
The News category includes audience and time spent online on both general news and broader news content including weather, sport, lifestyle, entertainment, and business news.
Ipsos iris, which launched earlier this month, provides data about the 21 million Australians aged 14+ who access a wide variety of digital content and services across smartphone, PC/laptop and tablet devices.
The February data also found that Australians spend an average of 3.5 hours per day, or 94 hours a month online on a PC/laptop, smartphone, or tablet device, which was a decline of 12% from January.
The most consumed online categories by total audience size in February include social networking (20.9 million) and search (20.9 million), technology (20.8 million), retail & commerce (almost 20.6 million) and entertainment (20.5 million) and news (20.3 million).
General news is the most popular news sub-category reaching 19.1 million Australians in February and weather had the highest time spent with almost 3 hours per person. The reporting of news brands also includes the audience of media owner content distributed on platforms such as Google AMP, Facebook, and Apple News.
The Ipsos iris data also found that while people aged between 25-39 were the largest cohort online, people aged between 55-64 spent the most time online in February.
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