News

Australian Community Media post major increase in audience due to move to regional Australia and launch of new Pugpig apps

ACM says the roll out of its apps, which are currently available for 10 of the daily mastheads, have also helped boost engagement levels, with the average session times on the app at six minutes and 21 seconds, according to Google Analytics.

19th January 2022

The AdNews article by Mariam Cheik-Hussein says: “Australian Community Media is crediting the increased move to regional Australia and new apps for its mastheads for a rise in audience and engagement levels.

The publisher’s audience was up 12% in new users in December, compared to the year prior, according to internal Google Analytics data.

ACM chief customer and marketing officer Paul Tyrrell says the rise in demand for its journalism comes as more Australians are moving to regional areas.

“As a result, we’re seeing ACM’s network of trusted mastheads being discovered by more people across a diverse demographic profile,” Tyrrell says.

“Interestingly we saw a jump in our younger audiences with an increase of nearly 10% in the 18 to 24 year old segment as more young people seek out trusted content,” Tyrrell says.

“The most pleasing thing was that most of the growth was a result of our audience coming direct to our sites rather than through any referral. Direct traffic grew by nearly 25% year on year. This shows the strength of our mastheads and the important role they play in keeping our communities strong, informed and connected.”

State-based data shows strong growth in key ACM markets for December, including 25% growth in Tasmania, 15% growth in the ACT and 8% growth in Queensland compared to the year prior.

The publisher is planning on launching apps for the remaining four mastheads, Western Advocate, Central Western Daily, Daily Liberal & Northern Daily Leader, by the end of February”.