The New Daily has continued its climb up the Nielsen digital ratings, jumping another four places in the latest survey of Australia’s online news sites.

Nielsen ranked TND at number 22 in the latest figures with a unique audience of just under 1.1 million people who visited the site at least once. It estimated slightly less than 4 million page views for the month.

TND‘s move up the Nielsen ladder represented a jump of four places from its position in last month’s report and a massive 15 places ahead of where it was in January this year. There are 147 sites on the list and their rankings shift each month according to audience measurement.

Editorial director of TND, Bruce Guthrie, said the growth reflected improvements made to the website in July and first-rate coverage of the 2016 Rio Olympics in August.

“It’s tremendously gratifying that the hard work of our editorial team is being rewarded,” Mr Guthrie said.

“We’re now sending out a curated package of stories every morning to hundreds of thousands of Australians and, increasingly, afternoon updates as well.

“Just this week we published special afternoon editions covering the US Presidential debate and the passing of Max Walker. It’s great to think our work is finding an ever-increasing audience.”

Mr Guthrie said of the 21 sites ahead of TND on the Nielsen ratings, 18 were owned or operated by News Corp, Fairfax or giant overseas publishers.

“I think readers are looking for a new take on the news,” Mr Guthrie said. “I think they like the fact that we’re Australian and, of course, we’re free. There’s none of those annoying paywalls to get in the way.”

Elsewhere in the August survey, the ABC surrendered the top position it held for the first time in July, falling to third place behind long-time heavyweights news.com.au (first) and smh.com.au (second). The Guardian fell out of the top 10 from sixth to 11th place.