New research by Nielsen and Roy Morgan shows Australians turning more to online news publishers but wary of who to trust.
Nielsen Digital Content Ratings report an average increase of 57 per cent across the top ten news sites audiences during March 2020, when compared to the previous month.
Seven of the top ten news sites reported audiences over 11 million people and all of the top ten recorded their highest unique audience figure since the ratings started.
More time was also being spent with current events and global news - reaching 51 million hours in total for March, up more than 20 million hours since December (see chart).
Nielsen revealed ABC News websites reported 15 million unique audiences accessing their content in March 2020 - up from 9.9 million in February, and retained the top rank position for the third consecutive month.
News.com.au ranked second with a unique audience of 12.3 million, followed by 7NEWS with 11.8 million.
The Guardian doubled its unique audience in March (+104 per cent) compared with the prior month, moving from seventh to four place.
The Australian also doubled its unique audience (+101 per cent) to rank tenth with a 4.9 million unique audience, making their debut in the top ten.
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| 1 | ABC News Websites | 15,184,807 | 0:48:10 | 13 | 53% |
| 2 | news.com.au | 12,277,882 | 0:42:19 | 12.4 | 31% |
| 3 | 7NEWS | 11,849,649 | 0:08:27 | 6.4 | 38% |
| 4 | The Guardian | 11,608,748 | 0:19:35 | 6.3 | 104% |
| 5 | Daily Mail Australia | 11,586,651 | 0:18:07 | 5.8 | 46% |
| 6 | nine.com.au | 11,560,179 | 0:28:57 | 9.1 | 46% |
| 7 | smh.com.au | 11,193,493 | 0:21:10 | 6.1 | 66% |
| 8 | Australian Community Media Network | 5,539,547 | 0:05:30 | 3.6 | 30% |
| 9 | The Age | 5,414,167 | 0:30:15 | 7.6 | 51% |
| 10 | The Australian |
4,925,825 | 0:16:47 | 4.3 | 101% |
As a whole, media is the third most distrusted of 25 industries surveyed and it has had the largest increase in distrust of any industry over the past eight months. Most trusted key tech brands include Apple and Microsoft.
Roy Morgan chief executive Michele Levine says high trust ratings for the ABC and SBS reflect their reputations for honesty, high quality service, independence and objective information.
However these are standouts in an industry where more key brands are distrusted than are trusted.
"The COVID-19 pandemic is introducing a great deal of stress into the business environment across the board," she says. "Many large advertisers are re-evaluating their marketing budgets with media outlets as consumers tighten their belts and discretionary purchases are curtailed.
"These impacts are already being felt strongly by media companies. Those which have a net distrust rating among consumers are most at risk, as people seek out trusted brands to find value in their news consumption."
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