Seven West’s national masthead The Nightly eyes 100,000 app downloads as digital newspaper edition replicas surge, state-based audiences free range beyond borders for more content.

By Paul McIntyre
Published Mi3

West heads east.

Newsmedia might be in a dog fight with global tech players on advertising economics and the next round of negotiations under the Media Bargaining Code but audiences across the country are changing their consumption habits and it’s underpinning a bullish outlook from the architect of a new Perth-based national digital new masthead.

The West Australian’s editorial boss Anthony De Ceglie points to Roy Morgan readership data and research from ThinkNewsBrands showing large swathes of state-based masthead readers are gypsies from outside traditional state borders seeking diverse content.

The politics and strategic intent of media moguls aside, Anthony De Ceglie says The Nightly has been the top downloaded news app since launching in late February and was on track to hit 100,000 downloads.

“We’re confident that we’ll be there within months,” De Ceglie told Mi3. “We’ve been number one [in news app downloads] for a while now and if that trend continues, we should be there very soon. We had optimistic KPIs in place and we’re really smashing them.”

ThinkNewsBrands CEO Vanessa Lyons said although the arrival of another national news masthead might have bewildered some, The Nightly is tapping live readership trends – the biggest being that a large chunk of the 97 per cent of adult Australians which read news each month are neutral on provenance.