The Nightly readership: Women drive surge in readers as national news website records new audience peak

Women are driving a surge in readers for The Nightly, with the national digital newspaper recording its highest audience since launch 18 months ago.

The latest official Ipsos iris data reveals The Nightly surged 20 per cent in October to a new peak audience of just under 3.3 million for the month.

The Nightly recorded the highest lift in unique audience for the month, among the top 30 news brands, behind only its sister publication The West Australian brand group which grew by more than 30 per cent for the month.

The audience for The Nightly’s digital-only national newspaper, website and app has grown 13 per cent year-on-year.

For context, the other two major national titles, The Australian went backwards by 7.3 per cent for the month, on top of a 26.4 per cent fall the previous month, and The Australian Financial Review fell back to 2.97 million unique audience for October.

The largest cohort of readers, almost a third, are in the 40-54-year-old bracket and women accounted for 58 per cent of the 3.27 million readers last month.

Since its launch last February, The Nightly has also enriched its offer to readers and advertisers with the prestige quarterly magazine The Nightly On … and a new travel edition published each Saturday called ROAM.

The Nightly is unique in publishing a full digital newspaper at 6pm on its 24/7 news site.

It has quickly established a reputation covering politics, national affairs and culture with bold commentary and insightful analysis and routinely sets the national agenda through dramatic front pages.

Editor-in-chief Christopher Dore said the success of The Nightly came down to exceptional execution and great content delivered fast, direct and unfiltered, mostly to the phones of readers.

The Nightly’s design is also clean and crisp, easily accessible, and captures the news in the perfect format for the modern reader.

“It is a nod to the traditional newspaper experience — leaving readers to ponder the content rather than the ink left on their hands,” Dore said.

“The impact of the front page is still as powerful as it has ever been, even if most newspaper publishers have given up.

“The Nightly delivers news for the digital readers who live by their phone, while capturing the moment in time with front pages that bite.”

Editor Sarah-Jane Tasker, who launched the site in 2024, said the audience was drawn to focus and clarity of The Nightly, and love the cleverness of the design.

“Our stories rise above the noise overwhelming the online news market both through design and through the sheer class of our writers and reporters who cut through the nonsense,” Tasker said.

“At the end of the day we are producing journalism readers trust.”

Source: Ipsos iris Online Audience Measurement Service, October 2025, Age 14+, PC/laptop/smartphone/tablet, Text only, Brand Group.