Australia’s news media sector has reported $2.02 billion in advertising revenue for the 12 months to December 31, 2017, according to the latest News Media Index (NMI) with data collated by Standard Media Index (SMI). It remains the third-largest media sector based on advertising revenue.
The sector’s advertising revenue hit a year high in the fourth quarter at $519.8 million, buoyed by advertising related to the Queensland election and the Marriage Equality debate.
The result was underpinned by digital news media revenue that grew 8.5% to $134 million, well above the agency-only growth rate of 6.6% reported by SMI. Digital spend from direct advertisers jumped by 31.8% to $85 million in the quarter.
Programmatic ad revenue also continued to grow strongly, rising by 26.5% to $9.9 million, while digital classifieds rose by 21.6% to $61 million in the quarter.
The total sector was back 9.9% in the quarter.
Unlike the monthly SMI data which reports agency only revenue, the quarterly News Media Index reports all print and digital ad revenue to Australia’s largest news media publishers from both agencies and direct advertisers and is independently verified by SMI.