This report examines Australia’s news market across six indicators that measure the state of diversity across professional news in Australia. It provides insights into Australia’s news media landscape, including levels of diversity in news sources, news content and Australians’ exposure to news across a range of platforms.

The report is the first in a biennial series reporting against the Media Diversity Measurement Framework project. The Framework is part of the Australian Government News Media Assistance Program, helping to inform government decision-making in support of public interest journalism and media diversity in Australia.

While there is no consensus on the optimal or ‘correct’ amount of news media diversity, a comprehensive and regular assessment of levels of media diversity offers benefits to industry, government and the regulator.

Key findings

• The current regulatory framework does not provide a complete picture of Australia’s news diversity.
• News websites and apps are the most prevalent type of news outlet, but are not covered by the ACMA’s regulatory remit.
• A high proportion of news articles produced in Australia contain public interest journalism.
• News consumption is decreasing in Australia and Australians’ trust in news is declining.
• Australia had a total of 2,864 professional news outlets across nine platforms in 2024.
• The number of people in Australia for whom journalism is their main job decreased by 19% from 2011 to 2021.
• Free-to-air TV and news websites continue to be the most popular platforms Australians use to consume news (for the third year in a row), while social media continues to be the most popular platform for accessing news among younger Australians (aged 18 to 34).
• The ABC holds a greater share of audience attention for Australians aged 45 and over, while Google and Meta (which includes Facebook and Instagram) each hold a greater share of audience attention for Australian adults under 45.