Guardian web lead threatened by Mail, Telegraph

by Ann-Marie Corvin, Media Week 24-Apr-08, 16:05

LONDON - The Daily Mail and The Daily Telegraph’s websites are fast closing Guardian.co.uk’s lead over its rivals, according to March ABCe data.

In February Guardian.co.uk, the UK’s most-popular newspaper website, attracted 2.5 million more online users than second-placed Dailymail.co.uk. However, last month’s ABCe data reveals this gap has closed to just 800,000 unique users, with Guardian.co.uk’s March unique user base down 4.18% from February to 18.7 million.

By contrast, Dailymail.co.uk’s user base incresed by 5% month on month, to top 17.9 million unique users in March.

Last month’s main newspaper website success, however, was Telegraph.co.uk, which added 4.8 million unique users, an increase of 38.69% month on month.

Telegraph Media Group marketing director Barry Flanigan said its online growth was due in part to a strong news month, as well as the newspaper group’s increased focus on digital following a restructure last year within its editorial teams.

Meanwhile, Mirror Group Newspapers’ first ABCe listing revealed that its portfolio of newspaper websites attracted around four million unique users in March. Tabloid rival The Sun Online, meanwhile, added more than one million users in March with a total of 13 million users.

As part of a strong set of ABCe figures for News International, Timesonline.co.uk added more than 1.5 million users to its site last month, totalling 16 million users, a year-on-year gain of 71.7%.

Elsewhere, the Financial Times site, FT.com, attracted 7.1 million users in March after partially lifting its subscription barrier in October, allowing non-subscribers to access 30 stories a month for free.