The Australian’s audience spikes in April

The Australian’s online audience surged in April, growing digital revenues and offsetting modest print declines.

The Australian saw its online audience surge by 13.3 per cent in April, growing its digital revenues and offsetting modest print declines.

The national broadsheet recorded a unique audience of 1.73 million in the month, up from 1.53m in March, according to Nielsen.

That ranked The Australian, published by News Corporation, as the number 16 digital news website in terms of audience, although its paywalls are more stringent than those ranked ahead of it.

It also recorded the strongest growth rate of any of the top news sites, as the lead-up to the Federal Budget and election stoked interest in The Australian’s content.

News Corp’s news.com.au retained top spot with a 5.8 m unique audience, followed by Fairfax Media’s smh.com.au with 4.8m and ABC News Websites with 4.3m.

The news comes after The Australian achieved its highest ever weekday print and digital sales result in the March quarter, according to the Audit Bureau of Circulation.

Total paid masthead sales, including print and digital, grew by 0.8 per cent to 170,016, while paid print sales slipped by just 2.1 per cent to 101,980 copies.