News Corp Australia reached four in five online Australians in July, with 17.71 million people visiting its digital properties, Ipsos iris data has revealed. The publisher also delivered an average of 151 browser page views per person, a 6.86 per cent rise month-on-month, cementing its position as Australia’s leading news and information publisher.
The company led the Ipsos iris rankings for both audience size and engagement across the News and Lifestyle categories. In News, it recorded a monthly audience of 14 million, 572 million browser page views, and an engaged reach of 40 page views per person, up 9.76 per cent from June. Average time spent per user was 48 minutes and 15 seconds.
Video consumption also saw strong growth, with 78 million video views across News properties in July, a 24.71 per cent increase month-on-month.
News.com.au drives category dominance
Flagship brand news.com.au delivered the highest engagement in the News category’s top 10. It attracted an audience of over 12 million, generated 320 million page views, and accounted for 10 per cent of all traffic in the News category.
The site recorded an average of 26 page views per person (up 14.49 per cent), an average time spent of 29 minutes and 16 seconds, and 66 million video views, over 65 per cent of total video views in the News category and five times more than its nearest competitor.
Taste.com.au tops Lifestyle
In the Lifestyle category, Taste.com.au led both audience and engagement in the top five brands. The site reached 4.64 million Australians in July and delivered 61 million browser page views, with an engaged reach of 13 page views per person, up 5.54 per cent from the previous month.
Video strategy continues to pay off
Pippa Leary, Managing Director and Publisher, Free News and Lifestyle, credited the results to a deliberate focus on engagement and the company’s growing video strategy.
“Our unwavering focus on engagement continues to deliver exceptional results for our news and lifestyle networks, with both categories seeing increases in engaged reach in July,” Leary said.
“We have also delivered significant growth in video this month… in keeping with our ambition unveiled at our event All Screens for All Australians to create one of Australia’s largest video ecosystems.”
The company launched a new video player in June, which now underpins its expanding video network across news and lifestyle verticals.
Sports platforms post strong numbers
In the Sports News category, SuperCoach recorded an audience of 228,000 with 24 million page views, translating to 103 page views per person and an average time spent of over two hours (127 minutes and 46 seconds). CODE Sports also saw growth, posting a 10.52 per cent increase month-on-month with 1.46 million users.
The Ipsos iris system, endorsed by the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB), provides audience measurement for over 22 million Australians aged 14 and up across smartphones, tablets and desktop devices.
Top image: Pippa Leary