For most Australians, a complete online news diet costs nothing: ABC News, SBS News, The Guardian Australia, news.com.au, 9News and 7NEWS are all free to read. What paywalls at the SMH, The Age and The Australian buy is depth — investigations, court and state-politics rounds, considered analysis. The smart setup is a free backbone plus, if news matters to your work, one subscription you will actually read.
Key takeaways
- ABC and SBS are publicly funded — free, no metering, no paywall.
- The Guardian Australia is free and reader-funded; news.com.au, 9News and 7NEWS are free with ads.
- Nine and News Corp mastheads meter free articles, then charge — worth it for depth, not for headlines.
- Cross-check big stories across two outlets with different owners before repeating them.
The free backbone
Start with the public broadcasters. ABC News carries breaking coverage, live blogs and — uniquely — official emergency broadcasting, with no paywall and no sign-up. SBS News adds a multicultural lens and publishes in more than 60 languages, which makes it the default recommendation for households where English is a second language.
The commercial free tier is bigger than people think: news.com.au is the country’s highest-traffic news portal, 9News and 7NEWS publish their TV journalism online free, and The Guardian Australia funds serious long-form reporting through optional reader contributions rather than a paywall. Daily Mail Australia rounds out the free tier with sheer volume — useful for celebrity and viral stories, but treat it as entertainment-weighted rather than a journal of record.
When a paywall earns its keep
Subscriptions at The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and The Australian buy the expensive journalism: months-long investigations, dedicated court and state-politics reporters, and business coverage that moves before the general sites catch up. If your work depends on knowing first — property, finance, government — one masthead subscription usually pays for itself.
All three meter rather than wall: you get a handful of free articles a month before the prompt appears. That makes them testable. Read your free allowance for a month, note whether you kept hitting the limit, and subscribe only if you did. One paywall you read daily beats three you feel guilty about.
Building a healthy news diet
Ownership shapes coverage, so know who owns what: Nine publishes the SMH, The Age and 9News; News Corp publishes news.com.au and The Australian; the ABC and SBS answer to charters, not shareholders. Our News & Media comparison table lists the owner of every site in the top 10 — when a story is big, read it across two owners and notice what each emphasises.
Then trim the firehose: pick two apps with notifications (one public, one commercial is a good split), let the rest be destinations rather than interruptions, and remember that local council and regional news is the genuine gap in every national top-10 — your local masthead, if you still have one, earns support on that basis alone.
See the rankings: the full News & Media top 10 — every site above, ranked and compared side-by-side on cost, accounts, apps and ownership.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best free news website in Australia?
Why do the SMH and The Age have paywalls but the ABC doesn’t?
Is news.com.au part of the ABC?
Published 12 June 2026. General information reflecting public details at the time of writing — pricing, fees, rights deals and features change. aus.directory has no commercial relationship with any site mentioned; nothing here is financial or professional advice. Spotted something out of date? Tell us.