The Daily Aus

The Daily Aus (TDA) is an Australian social media-based news outlet founded in 2017. They post news stories and explainer articles on their Instagram account, which has over 500,000 followers, and also release a daily email newsletter and podcast episode. In total, they reach almost two million Australians per month. Their editorial focus is on issues relevant to young Australians, as 85% of its audience is under 35 years old. As of November 2023, the company has 15 employees.

Publishing and audience
The Daily Aus primarily posts news content to its Instagram and TikTok accounts and its website. Every weekday morning, the publication also sends out an email newsletter and releases a new podcast episode. Their news content is "bite-sized" and "easily digestible", written in plain English, with its stories catered specifically towards a young Gen Z audience. The outlet reports that 85% of its audience is under the age of 35, and 70% cite The Daily Aus as their primary news source.

Key people
The Daily Aus was founded by Sam Koslowski and Zara Seidler in 2017. Seidler graduated with a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Sydney and worked as a news producer at Sky News and as a government officer. Koslowski worked as a corporate lawyer at a law firm, and was previously a social media journalist at Fox Sports Australia. In February 2021, they both quit their jobs to work at the company full-time. In 2020, the two entrepreneurs appeared in Forbes ' 30 Under 30 list for Media, Marketing & Advertising.

In March 2022, The Daily Aus appointed its first official editor, Billi FitzSimons – the daughter of Lisa Wilkinson and Peter FitzSimons. As of July 2023, the company has 13 employees.

History and growth
In 2020, The Daily Aus rapidly grew its Instagram following through its coverage of four key events: COVID-19 lockdowns and restrictions in Australia, the Black Summer bushfires, the George Floyd protests and the US presidential election. The founders attributed their growth in readership to young audiences "going to Instagram for the basic information before they go out to more sophisticated news sources for further reading." From July 2021, The Daily Aus built its online following from 100,000 to 270,000 in five months.

In April 2022, the news outlet partnered with the iHeart Podcast Network to handle the production of their two podcasts, The Daily Aus and No Silly Questions.

The publication received $1.2 million in seed funding, led by former Nine CEO David Gyngell, in June 2022.

In June 2023, amidst the online presale for the Australian leg of Taylor Swift's Eras Tour, The Daily Aus advertised a giveaway of four tickets to a random follower of their page. In a few hours, their account gained 20,000 followers. However, Frontier Touring, who was running the presale, later sent a cease and desist to the publication as tickets were not to be used as competition prizes. The Daily Aus was forced to remove their original post and issued an apology to readers that afternoon.

In September 2023, the news outlet announced they would be releasing their first book, No Silly Questions, via Penguin Random House. The publishing house had acquired rights to a book from the news outlet in November 2021.

In the lead-up to the 2023 Australian Indigenous voice referendum, The Daily Aus partnered with outdoor advertising company JCDecaux to promote an online information hub set up by the news outlet to answer common questions about the proposed alteration to the constitution.