mastodon 4.7.2Audience Editor at Guardian Australia. Formerly head of audience development, digital editor, engagement editor, online news editor etc at places like Courier Mail, 7News Brisbane, Quest Community Newspapers. I do social media, journalism, news, analytics and audience growth.
The NYC Bar Association is accusing the President of the United States of the murder of at least 20 civilians by ordering US military strikes against private vessels in international waters. "They were illegal summary executions – murders." https://www.nycbar.org/press-releases/unlawful-attacks-on-venezuelan-vessels/
Even with Trump’s ‘ceasefire’ some sort of global apocalypse is still on the cards. Which would you prefer? @firstdogonthemoon@aus.social votes triffids https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/picture/2026/apr/08/even-with-trumps-ceasefire-some-sort-of-global-apocalypse-is-still-on-the-cards?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other&utm_medium=d_social
All hail Ms Rachel
Paul Keating 👀 “The Liberal party […] has again fallen back to its default political policy: racism.”
📣 BREAKING 📯 Australia's Top News website rankings for February were released yesterday. ABC held No1, newscomau No2 and 🥁 Guardian Australia is the 4th biggest news website in the country for the 3rd month in a row. Thanks to the 7.8 million Australians who visited GdnAus in February 🙏
This is the first time in history that Guardian Australia has been ranked 4th or higher for three months in a row 👏 and it extends our record run to eight consecutive months where Guardian Australia has been ranked 5th or higher. It's a mixed bag in the rankings on audience gains and losses, with GdnAus the most steady in the Top20, down just 0.3%. Traditionally you'd expect February to be lower, with fewer days in the month. All other things being equal, and wildly fluctuating news agendas notwithstanding, you could generally expect a 10% lower volume of referral traffic between a 31-day and a 28-day month.
The top five rankings are unchanged, but probably the most noteworthy move is BBC News, up another two spots to No8, and dangerously close to overtaking DailyMail at No7. On that note, DailyMail dropped a massive 1.1m readers from January to February. From where they were to now, their decline is almost inexplicable. The other big move is SBS News, dropping 600k readers and out of the Top10.
The biggest gains in February came from The Conversation +846k readers (+36% MoM) and 9News +844k readers (+9% MoM). Also noteworthy is SkyNewsOz with the third biggest growth in the month, +621k readers and +3 spots in the rankings. That's absolutely huge for the Conversation. Not in the Top20 at all in January, and ranked 15th in February with an audience of 3.2m. The Conversation was last in the Top20 (at No20) in September last year with an audience of 2.8m.
Any questions? Ask in the comments! Where you'll also find a link back to the January rankings for comparison.
#audience #media #audiencedevelopment #audienceengagement #audiencegrowth #seo #search #newsproduct #product #engagement
"You hear such a lot from Maga Republicans about how liberals think Trump voters are stupid. But not nearly enough about the far more salient point: that Donald Trump thinks Trump voters are stupid … Trump really does regard his supporters as a honking great throng of halfwits" https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/apr/14/donald-trump-second-coming-jesus-middle-east-pope?utm_medium=d_social
My "Never had a relationship with Epstein" T-shirt has people asking a lot of questions already answered by my shirt https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/apr/09/melania-trump-epstein-lies
idk, I’m no former footy star and car enthusiast, but seems like it’s a good idea to gauge the price of fuel before filling the tank at the moment.
Trump claims Iranians are begging him to “Please keep bombing”. Okay dude. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/apr/06/trump-iranians-strikes-on-infrastructure?utm_medium=d_social
An attack on the life-supporting infrastructure for 93 million Iranians would constitute a war crime. Trump has promised to commit war crimes.
This leaves US military officers with a choice: disobey orders 🤷 or help commit war crimes? 🤷 https://www.theguardian.com/law/2026/apr/06/trump-threats-dilemma-for-officers-disobey-orders-or-commit-war-crimes?utm_medium=d_social
“For decades, federal agencies have gathered data on everything from climate risk to the rising cost of childcare. It is information funded by taxes, and that belongs to the American people …the Trump administration has been altering and removing decades’ worth of datasets” https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2026/may/07/trump-administration-deleting-data?utm_medium=d_social
Is it the sermon on the mount? The beatitudes? As our good Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ said: “Let every round find its mark", "give them…overwhelming violence of action against those who deserve no mercy".
Jesus, famously about people getting what they deserve and not giving them any mercy https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/mar/26/hegseth-prayer-violence-pentagon?utm_medium=d_social
ABC journalists will walk off the job on Wednesday for the first time in 20 years.
#qualitynewsqualityjobs
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2026/mar/23/abc-staff-strike-first-time-20-years?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other&utm_medium=d_social
‘Doomsday scenario’: a visual guide to the oil and gas site attacks in the Middle East https://www.theguardian.com/world/ng-interactive/2026/mar/19/visual-guide-oil-and-gas-site-attacks-middle-east?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other&utm_medium=d_social
"You could make the case that maybe we shouldn’t even be there at all."
Noooooo kidding. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/mar/16/trump-backlash-iran-war
‘Popesplaining’ Vance out of depth in argument over whether Iran is a just war https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/apr/17/pope-jd-vance-row-iran-just-war?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other&utm_medium=d_social
Trump began his day standing with a person in a giant bunny costume and boasting about the Iran war to an audience of children.
A couple of hours later, he held a press conference that did little to dispel growing fears that the commander-in-chief has lost touch with reality. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/apr/06/trump-iran-easter-press-conference?utm_medium=d_social
ICYMI in last week's #WeeklyBeast, the Courier Mail photoshopped Tony Burke out of a photo with the Iranian women's football team players, and still told readers it was a photo from the "Department of Home Affairs". But they did leave his elbow behind. https://www.theguardian.com/media/commentisfree/2026/mar/13/disappearing-act-tony-burke-erased-from-courier-mail-as-news-corp-tabloid-alters-image?utm_medium=d_social
Indigenous actor Q’orianka Kilcher sues James Cameron for ‘stealing’ her facial features for the Avatar character Neytini https://www.theguardian.com/film/2026/may/06/indigenous-actor-james-cameron-avatar-lawsuit?utm_medium=d_social
Q’orianka Kilcher ⬅️ or ➡️ Zoe Saldaña
Totally cool and normal genocidal maniac stuff.
“A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again. I don't want that to happen, but it probably will.” https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2026/apr/07/iran-war-live-updates-trump-hormuz-threats-deadline-strikes-middle-east-conflict?CMP=share_btn_url&page=with%3Ablock-69d4f5358f087f6d3658e650#block-69d4f5358f087f6d3658e650&utm_medium=d_social
‘Unhinged madman’: US politicians react to Trump’s expletive-laden threat to Iran https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/apr/05/trump-iran-threats-politician-reactions?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other&utm_medium=d_social
Top US army officer steps down after Hegseth reportedly demanded removal https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/apr/02/randy-george-pete-hegseth-us-army?CMP=share_btn_url&utm_medium=d_social
‘A litany of lies’: Trump’s rambling primetime Iran address sparks backlash https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/apr/02/trump-iran-war-address-backlash?CMP=share_btn_url&utm_medium=d_social
I thought POLITICO had brought forward their Australia launch
The Guardian can reveal the UK’s national security adviser attended the final US-Iran talks and judged Iran’s “surprising” offer on its nuclear programme was enough to reach a deal. A date was agreed for further technical talks. Two days later Trump and Israel attacked Iran. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/mar/17/uk-security-adviser-attended-us-iran-talks-and-judged-deal-was-within-reach?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other&utm_medium=d_social
Police alleged that a 45yo man experiencing “significant fatigue” was “operating the pedals” of the car while a 9yo boy sat on his lap and steered.
The two were picked up on a seatbelt detection camera at 1.35am on a major highway 120km (75 miles) west of Sydney. https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2026/mar/16/nine-year-old-boy-allegedly-driving-car-great-western-highway-australia-ntwnfb?CMP=share_btn_url&utm_medium=d_social
“So whoever it was, we think we’ll be able to find it out because we’re going to go to the media company that released it, and we’re going to say, ‘national security, give it up or go to jail’. And we know who – and you know who – we’re talking about.” https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/apr/06/trump-threats-journalist-missing-airman-iran?utm_medium=d_social
