News.com.au held the top spot as Australia’s number one news site for the fifth consecutive month, according to the latest rankings from Ipsos iris for May 2023.
News.com.au delivered an audience of 13.180 million, up 2.4% month-on-month, and reached six in 10 online Australians.
Overall, major news events such as the King’s Coronation ceremony, the Federal Budget, the NRL State of Origin, the death of MasterChef judge Jock Zonfrillo, Eurovision and the Met Gala drove interest in news websites and apps, with 20.2 million people using them during May, according to Ipsos iris.
Ipsos iris is Australia’s digital audience measurement currency endorsed by the IAB Australia. 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.
News brands’ ranking during May 2023 by online audience size
News.com.au editor-in-chief Lisa Muxworthy said May was also news.com.au's biggest month of search traffic in over a year.
"We always think about off-platform. That’s a big focus for us because it’s about reaching our audiences where they are," she said.
"We recorded record traffic on search in May, reached millions of Australians on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, and we had close to 19 million views of our coronation videos on TikTok," she said.
Muxworthy said she was particularly proud of the amount of time Australians are spending on news.com.au each month - in May it was an average of 33 minutes per person.
“It’s one thing to get Australians to come to you, it’s another thing entirely to keep them engaged for so long,” she said.
"I'm thrilled that Australians keep returning daily for their news, and to be informed and entertained."
Interest among Australians spending time online rose by 6.3% in May over the month prior, with those aged 14+ spending 3.8 hours a day online. People aged 25-39 were the largest cohort online during May, while people aged 40 to 54 spent the most time online.
The most consumed online categories by total audience size in May included search (20.9 million), social networking (20.9 million), technology (20.9 million), retail and commerce (20.7 million), and entertainment (20.5 million).
Ipsos iris, which officially launched in March, provides accurate 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.
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