Commentary

Aussie's ABC News Outranking Commerical Sector For Google Search Terms

Australian-based ABC News, which is produced by the News and Current Affairs division of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, is getting heat for out-bidding private organizations with taxpayer dollars on Google AdWords, according to one report.

The news organization is buying up a range of generic news search terms such as "breaking news," "international news," "national news," "politics news," and "sport news," which is working to land the news agency on the list of top online news publishers. Critics say the news agency has stepped outside the terms of its charter that requires the publisher to take account the commercial sector, reportsThe Australian, which noticed the phrases after testing them on google.com.

ABC now ranks third on the list of top Australian news publishers with 3,007 unique visitors, ­behind news.com.au with 3,906, and smh.com.au with 3,889, according to audience measurement firm Nielsen. However, ABC cannot keep its visitors' interest as long as other sites. While ABC visitors typically stay on the site an average 00:36:56 minutes, those visiting smh.com.au stay for 01:10:23 minutes, and News.com.au for 01:42:37 minutes.

I guess we could think of this as if the Whitehouse outbid local news agencies for search terms in the United States on Google related to top news stories. The government would use U.S. taxpayer dollars, further driving up the country's deficit.

More often Australians are going to the Internet looking for news and information. Many are using mobile devices to search, play, work, or shop online. Internet or online advertising will account for 51% or $8.2 billion of the total ad spend in Australia by 2019, up from 34% in 2014, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers for IAB: Australian Entertainment and Media Outlook.

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