ABC News holds off rivals as online news battle tightens

Almost 20 million Australians used a news website or app in August, with ABC News holding the top spot as Nine and several smaller rivals grew their audiences, according to the latest Ipsos iris data.

ABC News led the category with an audience of 11.3 million, despite falling 2.4% from July. News.com.au remained second with 10.5 million after recording a larger monthly decline of 4.8%.

The result left around 800,000 users separating the country’s two biggest digital news brands.

READ MORE: News Corp Australia leads news and information category as Ipsos iris shows scale and engagement strength

Nine gains ground

Nine.com.au ranked third with an audience of nine million, up 1.3% month on month.

It was one of just three top-10 news brands to grow its audience during August, alongside The Sydney Morning Herald and Daily Mail Australia.

Engagement also strengthened at nine.com.au, with average time spent per person rising 10.1% to 13 minutes.

Seven’s 7news.com.au held fourth place with 7.9 million users. Its audience was unchanged from July, although average time spent fell 5.7% to seven minutes per person.

The Guardian Australia remained fifth with an audience of 6.7 million, down 3.2%, while average time spent declined 7.6% to 18 minutes.

Daily Mail and SMH buck the trend

The Sydney Morning Herald grew its audience by 0.5% to 6.1 million, placing sixth. However, average time spent per person fell 9.6% to 19 minutes.

Daily Mail Australia recorded the strongest audience growth within the top 10, rising 1.7% to 5.5 million.

The publisher also posted the largest increase in average time spent, up 18.1% to 17 minutes per user.

SBS News experienced the sharpest monthly audience decline among the leading brands, falling 14.3% to 4.9 million.

BBC reached 4.6 million Australians, down 2%, while Yahoo News completed the top 10 with 4.2 million, down 6.6%. Despite the audience fall, Yahoo’s average time spent per person rose 15.5%.

Nearly 20 million Australians consume online news

News websites and apps reached 93.9% of online Australians aged 18 and over during August.

Users spent an average of 3.39 hours reading news online across the month.

Major domestic stories included the Sydney Swans investigation, the disappearance and death of teenage bushwalker Lily Hooper, the fatal Hamelin Pool crash and the Western Australian by-election.

International stories driving consumption included the deaths of Dolly Parton and Hayden Panettiere, the Nepal flood disaster and the announcement of Prince Harry and Meghan’s return to the UK.

Australians begin plotting summer escapes

Beyond news, travel websites and apps attracted almost 18 million Australian adults in August, up 2% from 17.6 million in July as consumers began researching summer holidays.

Booking.com reached more than seven million people after growing 3%, while Trip.com climbed 7.9% to 2.8 million.

Virgin Australia recorded one of the category’s largest gains, with its digital audience jumping 17.9% to almost four million, likely helped by its week-long international sale.

Audiences also grew across tourism information, cruise and airline platforms, as Australians turned their attention to Christmas and school holiday travel.

The figures come from Ipsos iris, Australia’s IAB-endorsed digital audience measurement system.

From July 2026, its reported data covers Australians aged 18 and over. Ipsos has cautioned that the figures cannot be directly compared with reporting periods before July, which included Australians aged 14 to 17.