Aspiring Australians In Sight

Aspiring Australians In Sight

News Digital Media has released the results of the largest ever survey of its online audience to launch an aggressive new campaign highlighting the value of the audience delivered across the network’s 23 sites.

The results have been compiled to create The News Digital Media Insight Report. The survey, conducted for News Digital Media during May and June, attracted almost 13,000 respondents*.

The survey found that users across News Digital Media’s news, sport, entertainment, search and shopping sites spend twice as long online than the average Australian.

Those respondents reported an average of almost 28 hours online each week, against the national average reported earlier this year of just less than 14 hours**.

Richard Freudenstein, chief executive officer, News Digital Media, said the findings are the first measure of what makes the News Digital Media audience unique. “In the face of extraordinary growth over the past two years, it’s been a challenge to define our audience,” Mr Freudenstein said.

 “Sites that deliver large audiences usually have low engagement, but the results of this survey show that our audience of almost 10 million unique browsers per month is highly engaged with the deep, quality content we’re providing.

 “Our audience spends twice as long online as the average Australian - and they spend more time engaged with the internet than with any other medium. Our audience is always on – wanting the latest and greatest – and turning to us 24 hours a day to find what they need.

 “By looking at their behaviour online and understanding more about their backgrounds, we have been able to identify our audience as a significant group of motivated consumers. It clear from the findings that the quality of the content we produce is key to this.”

The News Digital Media Insight Report, to be produced quarterly, also found that:

•  Email is thing we do most often online, but banking, pre-purchase research, and keeping up with the latest news and weather are regarded as the most important functions of the internet – particularly among high income households.
• The internet is seen as the most useful source of information about technology, entertainment bookings, travel, financial services, insurance and property and housing.
• Over 87 per cent of News Digital Media’s audience research products they are considering buying online, and 79 per cent have purchased online. · People are more likely to buy or sell from the internet if they trust the site. Our audience is four times more likely to trust the content of News Digital Media sites they visit than general online content.
• 98 per cent of all respondents access the internet more than once a day and on average they access 4.6 times daily during the week. On weekends, 94 per cent access the internet more than once, doing so an average of 3.4 times each day. 
•  81 per cent of respondents access the internet at home during the week and 90 per cent of respondents access the internet at home on weekends. · Site loyalty is strong. 58 per cent of visitors visit NEWS.com.au several times a day for the latest news, weather and entertainment – and 86 per cent of visitors visit the site at least once a week.
• 42 per cent say the internet is not essential to organising their social lives but 74 per cent value the ability of the internet to help them stay in touch; 97 per cent use email; 50 per cent use social networking sites; and 49 per cent use instant messaging.

People are spending an average 14 hours and 54 minutes each workday across different forms of media – multi-tasking their media consumption while they work and play. The report will be officially launched to trade media and advertisers at an event in Sydney tonight and in Melbourne tomorrow night.