Reality check: Finding the serious browsers

People serious about their politics clearly click onto The Australian. The website of the national daily tops the rankings in the Crikey survey of Politically Interested Readers compiled from data in the last seven of Crikey’s Daily Reality Checks.

Now the readers of The Oz might not agree with all the sentiments expressed in it (see Australian polls poles apart in Crikey earlier this month) but they consistently have more election stories in their top five most read list than any other of the 10 media sites we monitor. Only the ABC comes close to having the same political interest.

No wonder the Fairfax broadsheets are in the throes of abandoning the serious format for a smaller size if their website readers are anything to go by.

The Sydney Morning Herald does not even beat the Adelaide Advertiser which saw the light years ago and became a tabloid.

The media websites this morning showed the same pattern as the last week with The Australian and the ABC having two election stories in their top five. The West Australian and news.com.au lived up to their lowly rankings by containing none.

The West, however, has come to the rescue by giving detailed coverage of this morning’s Prime Ministerial walk complete with pictures of John Howard in shorts surrounded by his entourage of body guards. Mr Howard, the story said, went for his early morning walk along the banks of the Swan River, listening to a recording of an ad for a local Liberal candidate.

Apparently the Liberal Party’s advance people had done at least part of their job properly for the ad, attacking Labor’s links with the trade unions and written to the tune of Click Go The Shears, was played to Mr Howard on a portable ghetto blaster by two primary school children.

What the spinners could not control was the contact with a Labor supporter walking his dog who cheerily told Team Howard: “You’re going down guys – all the way to the gutter.”

Sydney Morning Herald

1. Female tennis coach guilty of s-x charges
2. Ex-spy takes aim in new memoir
3. Sarkozys call it quits, as France comes to a halt
4. Strain tells on Symonds
5. Rudd pitches tax rebates for education

The Age

1. Murdered toddler: police raid house
2. Father’s road death crumbled son, court told
3. Small is beautiful: words come at home
4. Trace on boyfriend’s mobile leads police to pedophile suspect
5. Me too, but with feeling

The Australian

1. Early warning of an Eagle’s fall
2. Rudd’s $31bn counterpunch
3. Mud flies around carwash company
4. Al-Qa’ida blamed for Bhutto attack
5. Rudd details tax policy

ABC

• Aussie band crash in US claims 2 lives
• Rudd unveils $2.3b education tax refund
• PM clashes with Chaser team
• Cousins drug charge to be dropped: lawyer
• Police drop Cousins drug charge

The West Australian

1. Police to probe discovery of drugs
2. Powerball win a ‘humbling’ experience
3. Soulmates killed living US dream
4. Police defend Cousins drug case
5. Cousins drug charge to be dropped: lawyer

Sydney Telegraph

1. The Right Brain vs Left Brain
2. Eat less, live long
3. Body in case murder: Home raided
4. $31bn tax deal with laptcp
5. Allowed to get away with it

Melbourne Herald Sun

1. Right Brain v Left Brain
2. Ben Cousins may sue
3. Hoon leaves bumper yield
4. Kevin Rudd does a Robin Hood
5. Lindsay’s partner in crime

Advertiser

1. Cousins urged to sue
2. Catriona hurt by gag backfire
3. Baby girl for Borat and Isla
4. Howard gives Chasers a spray
5. Japanese sect raided by 400…

Courier Mail

1. Uma in barely-there dress
2. Left Brain v Right Brain Test
3. Driver seven times limit
4. Overseas post for Beattie?
5. Premier’s water skills for sale

news.com.au

1. Babes in battle of the bra
2. House raided in pond murder lead
3. Watt a yummy mummy!
4. Tennis coach caught in l-sbian…
5. Drunk tourist sleeps off croc…