Two UK-owned news outlets, MailOnline and The Guardian, have shot up the charts for the most-visited news websites in Australia, according to Nielsen.
The latest Nielsen Online Ratings show that MailOnline was the sixth most-visited news site for the month of March, with a unique audience of 2.077 million, up from 1.401 million.
And The Guardian won 1.696 million unique views and recorded an increase in its female audience of 38%.
The top five most popular news sites remained unchanged on February, with News.com.au taking out the top spot, followed by smh.com.ay, Ninemsn, Yahoo!7 and ABC News.
According to the latest Nielsen data, almost 80% of Aussies are regularly online, with major news stories such as the missing flight MH370 continually driving the numbers.
The latest data, which reveals 17.5 million Australians are engaging with and consuming online content, incorporates new enhancements to Nielsen's online audience measurement system, which was announced yesterday.
Monique Perry, head of Nielsen's media industry group, said: “We always see a kick in the unique audience figures when comparing February to March due to the extra days in the month.
“Looking specifically at the news category, last month we had big international and local stories such as the MH370 story which our research shows drove new, incremental audiences online for latest updates.”
Nielsen's data also shows that the top 10 news sites increased their session times with audiences by an average 28% from February to March, and that more people are engaging with the content via mobile devices.
Perry added: “Given the ever-breaking updates on major news stories this month, there are certainly increases in snacking behaviour on news websites via mobile devices.
“News publishers have identified what is working well and are delivering fast, up-to-date and quality content that is mobile device friendly.”
She predicted mobile audiences will continue to grow: “Increasing options to access breaking news on the go and at any time via mobile devices will see incremental audiences and engagement to online news sites continue to grow.”
The top 10 news sites:
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