TLDR
News Australia launched a month-long Black Friday and Cyber Monday campaign on 9 November 2026, built to earn citation slots inside AI answer engines. YouGov data shows 60% of likely Australian shoppers plan to use AI during the sales this year, though only 10% trust it to complete a purchase without checking first.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
The campaign and what it is built for
News Australia launched its 2026 Black Friday and Cyber Monday campaign on 9 November, putting news.com.au Checkout at the centre under the line "Checkout before you check out."[1] The campaign is pitched as a discoverability product as much as a retail one: News says it is the most-cited commercial Australian publisher on ChatGPT, citing a Semrush September 2026 AI Visibility Overview as the source for that claim.[1]
Sophie Miura, General Manager eCommerce at News Australia, said: "This year marks Australia's first truly AI-shaped Black Friday."[1]
The digital layer includes automated catalogues that update merchant prices four times a day, one-tap mobile wallet reminders and editor-led shoppable videos on social media.[1] Print editions across 11 state and community mastheads, including The Daily Telegraph, Herald Sun, The Courier-Mail and The Advertiser, will carry high-impact wraps for 10 consecutive days.[1] The campaign then links into Travel Tuesday on 1 December to extend commercial momentum into holiday bookings.[1]
What the shopper numbers say
YouGov's "The bots and the basket" report, published 15 October 2026, found that 60% of likely Black Friday and Cyber Monday shoppers plan to use AI to help find deals this year, up from 49% in 2025, a rise of 11 percentage points in a single year.[2] Across all Australians, 36% plan to shop the sales at all.[2]
The same report shows where the enthusiasm stops: only 10% of likely shoppers are comfortable letting AI complete a purchase without checking first, and 35% say they struggle to know whether a discount is genuine.[2]
The citation claim and its limits
Semrush's public AI Visibility Index tracks brand mentions and source citations across 180 million-plus AI answers, 22 industries, 9 markets and four platforms: ChatGPT, Google AI Mode, Google AI Overviews and Gemini.[3] Andrew Warden, Global Vice President of Marketing and CMO at Semrush, said: "AI is now a decision layer for customers, changing how they discover brands, sort through options and ultimately purchase."[4]
Semrush notes that AI visibility varies by market and platform, meaning a publisher leading on ChatGPT does not automatically carry that position on Gemini or Google's AI answers.[4] News Australia's release does not say which Semrush report or tool produced its figure.
Where this sits for Australian publishers
news.com.au overtook ABC News as Australia's most-read news site in September 2026, according to Ipsos iris data covered by this publication, giving News Australia an audience argument alongside its AI-citation argument.[5]
News Australia's retail partners for the push are not named in the release. Last year's network-wide Black Friday campaign listed Harvey Norman, The Good Guys, Aldi and Priceline among its partners, with a print liftout and a live deals ticker on the mastheads' homepages, according to Mediaweek.[6]
SOURCES & CITATIONS
- News Australia launches first AI-driven Black Friday campaign via news.com.au Checkout
- YouGov: The bots and the basket, AU Mega Sales Report 2026
- Semrush AI Visibility Index: Methodology
- Semrush releases 2026 AI Visibility Index
- news.com.au overtakes ABC News, Ipsos iris, September 2026
- Mediaweek, News Australia launches network-wide push for Black Friday (2025)
- B&T, News Australia turns to AI in new Black Friday campaign
James Dore is founder and editor of Prompt the Market and Strategy Director at Bushnote, a Sydney strategy, SEO and AI search agency. He has a background in strategy, media and financial services, and led consumer product marketing at MONEYME. He writes on AI search, answer engines, technology policy and media economics.
