Digital growth cements WAN among Australia’s top news brands – The Nightly enters 2026 with record audience momentum.
The latest Ipsos iris results for December 2025, show The West Australian and The Nightly entering 2026 with strong momentum, following a year of accelerating digital growth that saw the two brands emerge as the best performing of Australia’s top 25 digital news brands month-on-month, delivering a combined audience of 5.7 million Australians.
That momentum culminated in a major milestone for The Nightly, which reached its highest audience ever in December, growing to 3.6 million readers or 16% of the national market. This represents an increase of 32% over the month and together, with The West Australian brand group delivering the strongest month-on-month performance among Australia’s top 25 digital news brands. The Nightly’s audience was 25% higher than in December 2024.
The Nightly’s rapid growth is being fuelled by a highly attractive and increasingly national audience.
Almost half of its monthly audience is aged 25–54, 54% are female and 83% reside outside Western Australia. With 55% of readers located in New South Wales the ACT and Victoria, The Nightly has firmly established itself as a truly national digital news brand.
In less than two years since The Nightly’s launch, West Australian Newspapers (WAN) has grown its total digital monthly audience by 44%, a powerful signal of sustained momentum across The Nightly and The West Australian digital news brands.
The West Australian also enters the year from a position of sustained strength following annual audience growth of 22% nationally. While in WA, it dominates the market as the #1 digital news brand growing audience by 15% across the year to reach 1.48 million monthly readers.
That annual performance was driven by a massive result in December, with audience growth of 34.8% month-on-month, cementing itself as the best performing of Australia’s top 25 digital news brands, reaching a total audience of 3.95 million, or 18% of Australians, its highest monthly audience since August 2024.
Audience growth was matched by reader engagement, with page views increasing by 20% in December to 50.1 million.
This is The West’s strongest result since the commencement of Ipsos iris measurement in January 2023, placing it ahead of both the ABC and news.com.au digital brands in WA, supported by almost 43 million page views in December.
The strong performance extended across the portfolio, thewest.com.au grew its monthly audience by 50%, with page views up 10%, while PerthNow recorded a 33% lift in monthly audience and a 26% increase in page views.
Editor-in-Chief, Christopher Dore, said:
“Our 2025 results demonstrate the strength and momentum of WAN’s digital news portfolio across The West Australian, The Nightly and PerthNow.
“In less than two years since launching The Nightly, WAN has grown it’s total monthly digital audience by 50% from 3.8 million to 5.7 million, a powerful reflection of sustained digital growth and our ability to deliver trusted journalism to a growing national audience.”
Link to The West HERE
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Digital growth cements WAN among Australia’s top news brands
