Sun Online defies quiet festive season with 15% traffic surge

by Jacquie Bowser, Brand Republic 22-Jan-09, 12:40

LONDON - The Sun's websites added over 2.5m unique users to its total audience during December, despite every other UK national newspaper website reporting a drop in traffic over the Christmas period, according to the latest ABCe figures.

The Sun, which includes the daily newspaper site as well as NewsoftheWorld.co.uk and Page3.com, came very close to overtaking Times Online.

The red top jumped 15.4% month on month to almost 19m unique users, while its UK user total dropped to 6.5m, down from 6.9m in November.

The Guardian remains the most popular newspaper site, despite losing 12.3% of its audience month on month to hit 22.9m.

Its UK user total dropped by about 1m on November to 8.4m in December.

Telegraph.co.uk held onto second place despite dropping 8.3% month on month to 21m. Its UK users dropped from 7.4m in November to 6.9m in December.

The leapfrogging game continued between MailOnline and TimesOnline with MailOnline, which includes the Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday sites, taking back third position despite suffering a decrease in traffic.

MailOnline's unique users dropped 5.8% month on month to hit 19.7m, while its UK users dropped from 6.4m in November to 6m in December.

Times Online suffered an 11.5% drop in unique users to hit 19.1m.

The site's UK users also dropped, falling from 7.2m in November to 6.8m in December.

Independent.co.uk remained fairly static, dropping by 1.5% month on month to 8.8m unique users. During the month it attracted 3.6m UK users.

Mirror Group, spanning Mirror.co.uk, SundayMirror.co.uk and People.co.uk, dropped 10% month on month to 5.3m unique users.

Its UK user total dropped from 3.4m in November to 3m in December.