The ABC’s news sites have displaced long-time titans of digital media, Fairfax and News Corp, at the top of the Nielsen Digital Ratings.

The ABC grabbed the number one spot in July, consigning news.com.au and smh.com.au to second and third places respectively.

The other big movers in the July ratings were nine.com.au, which jumped into the top five, Telstra Media Sky News, which leapt 11 places to 24th spot and The New Daily, which jumped four places to number 26.

The national broadcaster’s strong performance has been attributed to the impact of the federal election.

The ABC’s director of news, Gaven Morris, said the organisation was proud to achieve the number one spot.

“Our online and mobile audiences are as important to ABC News as our television viewers and radio listeners,” Mr Morris said.

“It’s gratifying to see they value the services we provide,” he added.

The ABC is a content partner with The New Daily and has been since TND‘s launch in November 2013.

The Nielsen Top Five for July reflected the rise of broadcasters in the digital space – the ABC (number one) and Nine Network (four) – and the influx of foreign-owned sites since internet news sites started displacing print, the Daily Mail (five).

Editorial director of The New Daily Bruce Guthrie said the site’s climb to number 26 spot was “terrific, given we weren’t inside the top 150 sites when we launched less than three years ago”.

When foreign-owned or operated sites were filtered out of the Top 30, The New Daily came in at number 16 on the Nielsen list.

“It’s fantastic that Australians are supporting a young, locally-owned and locally-operated news site,” Mr Guthrie said. “We’d like to think we are now part of the national conversation.”