Quick Guide, 2024-25

News media outlets, ownership and audience statistics: a quick guide to internet links

Communications and Media Business Industry and Corporate Affairs

Author

Nell Fraser

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 This quick guide provides links to resources regarding news media in Australia, including lists of news outlets and reports on news consumption patterns.

News outlets in Australia

Media diversity and ownership

News media governance, peak bodies and industry standards

… is responsible for promoting high standards of media practice, community access to information of public interest, and freedom of expression through the media. The Australian Press Council is the principal body with responsibility for responding to complaints about published material other than advertisements in Australian newspapers, magazines and digital sites. [link added]

The Australian Press Council also publishes Standards of Practice, contained in its Statement of General Principles and Statement of Privacy Principles, which apply to its members, as well as advisory guidelines for particular aspects of media practice.

  • The Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance (MEAA) is the key union and industry advocate for those in creative industries, including people working in television, radio and journalism. The MEAA Journalist Code of Ethics applies to all journalist members of MEAA.
  • Independent Multicultural Media Association (IMMA) is a media alliance of over 30 independent multicultural media organisations in Australia, which present and publish in heritage languages and in English.
  • Digital Publishers Alliance (DPA) is an industry association representing over 56 digital-first publishers, including many news titles.  
  • The national broadcasters – ABC and SBS – are bound by their Charters, as contained in their respective pieces of enabling legislation.
  • ACMA is an independent Commonwealth statutory authority which regulates communication and media services in Australia. ACMA may investigate whether broadcasters are following the law, particularly requirements under the Broadcasting Services Act 1992. ACMA also publishes industry codes of practice for radio and television broadcasters, many of which include aspects related to news content.

News consumption in Australia – survey results

  • The ACMA Communications and media in Australia research series includes interactive reports on how Australians communicate and use and access media, based on annual survey results. Reports allow for results to be filtered by gender, age and location. The latest report, How we access news, was published in February 2024.
  • The University of Canberra’s News and Media Research Centre publishes an annual Digital News Report: Australia. The reports are:

… part of a long-running international survey coordinated by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, an international research centre in the comparative study of journalism based at Oxford University. The Digital News Report delivers comparative data on media usage in 47 countries and across 6 continents.

The reports provide insight on a range of topics, including how people access news, people’s interest in news and politics, use of social media and podcasting to access news, attitudes towards journalism and attitudes towards news curation and algorithms. International data is presented through the University of Oxford’s Digital News Report.

  • The Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications and the Arts commissions and publishes data related to media consumption. The 2023 Television and Media Survey, prepared by the Social Research Centre, includes a section on ‘News Content’.
  • The Lowy Institute’s Being Chinese in Australia interactive report includes a short chapter on Chinese-Australians’ interaction with news and media.
  • VOZ reports bring together total television viewing figures for free-to-air and subscription television programs across televisions and connected devices (including smart TVs, computers, tablets and smartphones). These reports can be used for comparing the reach of television news programs.
  • Regional TAM provides TV viewing figures for free-to-air and subscription television programs in regional Australia. The weekly reports can be used for comparing the reach of television news programs.
  • The Australian Podcast Ranker, commissioned by Commercial Radio and Audio, Australia’s peak commercial radio body, lists the top podcasts from participating publishers that are consumed by listeners in Australia. The ranker can be filtered to ‘news’ and ‘news and politics’.
  • Roy Morgan and Think News Brands publish quarterly reports on readership numbers for newspapers in Australia. Reports prior to June 2021 include readership numbers by newspaper title.