Daily Mail online closes in on Guardian Unlimited

by Jacquie Bowser, Brand Republic 21-Feb-08, 13:05

LONDON - The Daily Mail's popularity online soared during January as its monthly unique user total jumped 31% from December to 17.9m, placing it less than 2m users behind Guardian Unlimited.

The Daily Mail online network, which comprises dailymail.co.uk and mailonsunday.co.uk, bounced back from a poor December, when it lost almost 1m users, to post its highest unique user figure to date.

However, the UK portion of these users totalled just under 5m, whereas 8.7m of the Guardian's 19.7m unique users were from the UK.

Guardian Unlimited, which includes guardian.co.uk and observer.co.uk, saw its unique users climb from 16m in December, an increase of almost 24%. Its unique users figure is up by 25.5% from a year ago.

Times Online, which includes timesonline.co.uk and www.sunday-times.co.uk, also held firm in third position with 15m unique users, a rise of 35% from the 11.2m users it recorded during December. The site's users are up by 38.5% from January 2007.

Almost 6m of the Times Online's unique users were from the UK in January.

Telegraph.co.uk also performed well last month, recording a 17% rise in unique users to 12.4m during January. This figure is up by 65% from a year ago. The website reached 5.3m UK users, which was up 80% from a year earlier.

The Sun Online network, covering thesun.co.uk, page3.co.uk and newsoftheworld.co.uk, remains in fifth position despite a 27% rise in unique users from December to 13.3m in January. Its unique users are up by almost 40% on January 2007. Almost 5.5m of the site's unique users were from the UK.

The Independent.co.uk did not release its ABCe figure despite relaunching last month.