News.com.au has regained its spot as the most-read Australian news website, after slipping midway through last year.
According to Ipsos iris rankings, news.com.au had 12,172,000 readers during the month and experienced a 2.1% growth in December 2024 from November 2024. This puts them 250,000 readers ahead of ABC for the month, a stark difference from the slight 40,000 lead in November.
At the tail-end of 2024, there was a tough battle between news.com.au and ABC. From April 2023 to June last year, news.com.au had the top readership until ABC took this spot in July. News.com.au then scrapped in August to have 10,000 more readers than ABC, who regained top readership in September and October before again being toppled in November.
Managing director and publisher of free news and lifestyle at News Corp, Pippa Leary told Mumbrella their network of news and lifestyle sites has had an “incredible” year.
“News Corp Australia was the leading news and information publisher for 12 consecutive months and importantly, through our highly engaged audiences, we delivered strong engaged reach that drives real results for our clients." she said.
ABC was the country’s top-ranking news website for around three years and ABC chairman, Kim Williams attributed their 2024 success to a refocus of their online news offering, slamming News Corp's prioritisation of lifestyle stories over hard news.
“The ABC’s primary obligations are obviously to what might be regarded as serious news and commentary and to things that reflect a plurality of serious aspirations on the part of the community, or things that are in mainstream entertainment,” he told the Guardian.
At the time of writing, News Corporation Class B Voting CDI's (ASX: NWS) share price was $49.98, with a market cap of around US$16.48 billion.
