Seven West Media’s The Nightly celebrated its first birthday with a federal election forum at the Sydney Opera House last Thursday.
The event brought together leaders from across the media and marketing industries and featured an address by The Nightly’s Editor-in-Chief Chris Dore, panel discussion with ThinkNewsBrands CEO Vanessa Lyons and Roy Morgan CEO Michele Levine, and two other panel discussions with some of the The Nightly’s top writers.
In addition to fantastic political insights from The Nightly’s writers, the night included info on The Nightly’s strategy and first year performance; consumer sentiment and polling, in the lead up to the federal election; and media insights into the power of news publishing during an election period.
The Nightly’s Editor-in-Chief Chris Dore.
The Nightly’s growth and future plans
Chris Dore began the evening by sharing impressive performance figures, revealing The Nightly’s audience has grown to 3 million monthly readers nationwide.
“Through a powerful tabloid front page with a sophisticated broadsheet edge each night, we have come a long way in a short period of time, and we have a long way to go,” Dore said.
With a strong product and faithful audience in place, Dore revealed The Nightly is now looking towards its next phase of growth, with several initiatives in the works to be announced in the coming weeks, including a new weekend travel focus set to be launched around the end of the financial year.
“This will be our first foray into lifestyle categories, and it will be the first digital-first travel product among news publishers,” Dore said. “The Nightly is transforming how people think about news published on digital platforms, as we build a unique bridge between traditional newspaper journalism and the mobile reading habits of the modern news consumer.”
ThinkNewsBrands CEO, Vanessa Lyons and Roy Morgan CEO, Michele Levine.
Australia’s bleak sentiment
Michele Levine and Vanessa Lyons then took the stage to examine the political and consumer landscapes in the lead-up to the federal election.
Levine presented the latest Roy Morgan data, painting a bleak picture of consumer confidence.
“It’s at its lowest point this year, with nearly half of Australians saying their families are worse off financially than they were a year ago, and for the first time, more respondents expect their financial situation to decline rather than improve over the next 12 months,” she noted.
Levine also said economic pessimism was the highest it’s been all year.
“Only 8% of Australians expect ‘good times’ for the economy in the year ahead, while 32% anticipate ‘bad times’… Put simply, it’s bleak out there as we head into the election,” she said.
News media opportunity during an election period
Lyons and Levine then discussed how news media represents a great opportunity for media buyers and advertisers during an election period, noting major global and local events deliver readership surges across Australia’s major publishers.
Levine said, “In 2023, news readership across the country had its second highest month in October, in large part due to The Voice referendum, and in 2022, the Federal election made May one of the highest readership months of the year.”
Lyons said this made sense given people turned to news publishing more than any other channel for political information.
“ThinkNewsBrands research shows news publishing is the top media choice for Australians when it comes to political content – more than 5x social media and 7x radio,” said Lyons.
Vanessa Lyons, CEO of ThinkNewsBrands.
Lyons and Levine predicted even greater numbers of readers would flock to trusted news sources in the lead up to the federal election given uncertain times and widespread concern about misinformation.
“With the election around the corner, it’s really a great opportunity for brands to maximise reach and engagement by investing in news publishing,” said Lyons.
Spotlight on The Nightly’s successful strategy
The panel concluded with a discussion on the industry and consumer trends behind The Nightly’s successful strategy.
“The Nightly has firmly positioned itself as a national publication,” Lyons said, highlighting that 80% of its readership is outside of WA, with the majority in NSW, Victoria, and Queensland.”
Lyons said this was a product of digital accessibility seeing state/territory news brands gaining large readership numbers outside their local markets in addition to local audiences.
“Digital accessibility has allowed state-based news brands to expand their reach beyond traditional markets, and The Nightly has capitalised on that trend,” Lyons said.
The Nightly’s evening drop has also proven key to its success.
Lyons noted, “Its 6pm release time aligns with a major evening news consumption peak, complementing existing morning and lunchtime readership surges.”
Lyon’s concluded by saying that a strong transformation from print to digital was taking place in the industry to match consumer preference and that The Nightly was one at the forefront of the transition.
Said Lyons, “The Nightly has always been digital-first and really focused on the potential of a digital-first product. It’s an exciting example of what the future of news publishing may look like.”