All news sites rise with election tide

BY Nathan Jolly

April 24, 2025 11:59

Although Anthony Albanese didn’t officially call the date until the end of March, federal election fever caught on early for online news readers.

A pending election, Trump’s war on the world, and Cyclone Alfred all resulted in a 4.3% rise in total readership across Australian news sites, to 21.6 million people. All of the top ten outlets in the country gained readers during March.

This is according to the latest Ipsos Iris rankings, which show ABC News has pulled some 900,000 readers ahead of news.com.au, gaining 7% on news.com.au’s more modest 1.3% rise. ABC readership now sits at 13.2 million, compared to news.com.au’s 12.4 million.

News Corp’s news.com.au remains in second spot, despite increasing its readership.

The pair sit well clear of nearest rival nine.com.au, which drew 10.85 million readers in March, a 3.8% leap.

The biggest audience increase, from a percentage base, is from The Guardian, who grew its audience by 16.2% in March, followed by SBS News, with 10.7%. Daily Mail Australia had the smallest gain, up just 0.5%, despite the glut of Meghan Markle and Kyle Sandilands news available to them throughout the month.

The big leaps came in engagement — or average time on site, which increased across the board — with SBS up 33%, Yahoo News seeing a 28.6% increase, while The Age in Melbourne jumped by 27.8%. Again, the Daily Mail was the only exception, with dwell time remaining the same.

Next month’s rankings will be the truest indicator of which news sites Australians turn to during an election. Or, at the very least – it will show where Aussies choose to read their papal tributes.