Seven West Media’s The Nightly, Australia’s only digital evening newspaper, continues to reach new heights, with a surge of readers in NSW driving the audience for the new site to a high.
The industry-audited IPSOS iris figures for August show that The Nightly reached a unique audience of 2.84 million Australians, attracting an additional 227,000 readers compared to July, an increase of 8.7%.
Just seven months after it launched, The Nightly now sits just below The Australian on the news website rankings, and several places higher than The Australian Financial Review.
The IPSOS iris figures also showed a double-digit increase in page views for August, with 7.4 million recorded for the month, a 12% increase on July.
The new figures reveal the largest audience for The Nightly lives in NSW and Canberra, which represent more than 31% of its readers, followed by Victoria, which has more than 20%. Just over 20% of The Nightly’s audience is in WA, the home base of its publisher, West Australian Newspapers (WAN), which is owned by Seven West Media.
In WA, where The West Australian is the #1 news site, The Nightly has almost 200,000 more readers than Nine’s local site, WA Today. It also has more than 200,000 more readers than both The Australian and The Australian Financial Review.
The Nightly continues to resonate with female readers – who make up 52% of its audience – and younger ones, with 55% of its audience aged between 25 and 54.
The inaugural Editor of The Nightly, and Editor of WAN, Sarah-Jane Tasker, said readers were attracted to the news site because it was built on strong journalism, robust opinions and beautiful design.
“It is also unique, that nightly curated and captivated digital newspaper is like nothing else in the market,” she said. “Readers are growing increasingly loyal to the nightly news drop. It sets the agenda, publishing front pages hours before other newspapers land around the country. It gives readers a clear picture of the day and an insight into the days ahead.”
Apart from the digital edition each night, The Nightly’s team is also quick in reaching out to readers with the latest news notifications, email alerts and updates.
The Nightly draws on some of the best journalists in the country, including reporters from 7NEWS, the WAN newspapers, as well as agenda-setting commentators and analysts such as Aaron Patrick, Latika M Bourke, Cameron Milner, Jeni O’Dowd, Andrew Carswell and the nation’s most feared and respected art critic, John McDonald.
The Nightly’s international coverage features stories and columns from The New York Times, The Economist, The Washington Post, CNBC and London’s Daily Mail newspaper.
Ms Tasker said The Nightly’s meteoric rise was proof that Australia’s mainstream middle was crying out for a voice that could cut through the cacophony of white noise and fake news online.
“The Nightly may only be seven months old but it feels like we’ve been an established voice in the media landscape for much longer,” she said.
“The Nightly doesn’t push the same tired agendas as older media players. It is bold, brash and unapologetically honest.”
