Two major structural changes have been made to the database over the previous quarter: the addition of entity data and an update to the Version ID field.

Record changes – that is, changes to the content of the data reflecting new or updated information about Australian news publishers – are reported separately. Please see here for a summary of record changes in Q2/25.

The Q2/25 data sheet is available on the Publications page.

Entity data

This data release includes entities for the first time. This information had to be completely rebuilt from the available PIJI data and so took considerable time, but is now largely finished.

Entities are the registered businesses which operate the news outlet. Information for this field is primarily drawn from the Australian Business Register, from the publications themselves, and in some cases, from direct correspondence with the publisher.

The following fields are available on the Outlets sheet:

  • Entity Name, meaning the name of the entity that operates the outlet according to the Australian Business Register.
  • Entity Type, meaning the incorporation structure of the entity according to the Australian Business Register.

A new sheet, Entities, has also been added. It contains the following fields:

  • Entity Name, meaning the name of the entity that operates the outlet according to the Australian Business Register.
  • ID, meaning a unique identification number for each entity.
  • ABN, meaning the 11-digit Australian Business Number for the entity according to the Australian Business Register.
  • Status, meaning the date that the ABN was registered according to the Australian Business Register. In some cases, this field may instead include when the ABN registration was cancelled.
  • Entity Type, meaning the incorporation structure of the entity according to the Australian Business Register.
  • Location, meaning the primary business location of the entity according to the Australian Business Register.
  • Parent Entities, meaning any entity or entities that wholly or partially own the entity.
  • Child Entities, meaning any entity or entities that are wholly or partially owned by the entity.
  • Associated Outlets, meaning any outlets that are operated by the entity.

Entity records are now also available through the interface for members of the Journalism, Education and Research Association of Australia (JERAA). Clicking on an outlet in any of the tables across the three visualisations will open up a record card on the right of the screen.

By clicking on the results of the Operating Entity field, a new card will open for that entity, containing the relevant data.

As can be seen on this screenshot, many entity cards currently contain the same outlet multiple times. This is due to the way that the data is stored, with each reflecting one Version of the outlet – in this example, the acquisition of the Hawkesbury Post from Tony Bosworth, then reopening the Hawkesbury Post, then closing the Hawkesbury Post (the current Version). There is a time-consuming fix for this display issue that I will undertake during the coming quarter, but as a workaround, the bottom item will always be the Current version of the record.

Entity records are not entirely complete, but are most of the way done. There are currently 18 records, or around two per cent of the total, which are not allocated to entities. Some of these are very small efforts which are not published by registered businesses, but most are historical titles where the ability to access that information is limited. I will continue to work on these through the next quarter.

Version ID update

The other major change to the data structure since Q1/25 is in the Version ID field. This contains a unique identification in the format ID.XX, meaning the number allocated in the ID field before the decimal point, followed by a sequential number reflecting the Version of the record after the decimal point.

In the first data release, Version ID commenced at ID.00, meaning that (for example) the first Version ID of the West QLD Echo (ID 782), reflecting its opening in June 2020, was 782.00; the second Version ID reflecting its closure in September 2020 was 782.01. Beginning at 00 was unintuitive and caused issues in some spreadsheet software, most notably Excel and Airtable, the program in which the data is stored, which do not by default display fractional parts where they equal zero.

From this release onwards all Version ID will commence at .01. This is both clearer on a quick read – .01 is the first version, .02 is the second, etc. – and resolves the display issue. All records in the Q2/25 release have been updated to reflect this approach. The Q1/25 release was also reissued with this update in July 2025.

Next quarter

In addition to the three flagged items (fixing the outlet display issue on entity cards, identifying the remaining operating entities and reissuing the Q1/25 data with new Version ID), there is one major update that I am planning for Q3/25.

The next major piece of work will be to rebuild the market changes data for display in the interface. Currently two change types – outlet opened and outlet closed – are well-represented; Ownership Change events are likely well covered but need review, and the end of print editions are not well represented. My intention is to thoroughly review and rebuild this data before the September release.

I will also work on getting the history of changes at a particular outlet displayed on the outlet card on the visualisation. As it stands, only the most recent change is easily accessible. My intention is to provide a summary of observations of each outlet on the card. A mock-up of this can be seen below.

Please send me an email if you have any other ideas that you would like for me to work on over the coming quarter or beyond.