Guardian website nears 30m users

by Jacquie Bowser, Brand Republic 26-Feb-09, 12:50

LONDON - Guardian.co.uk reached a record audience in January, attracting almost 30m unique users in a month where all UK national newspaper websites posted record results, according to the latest ABCe figures.

The Guardian remains the most popular newspaper site, increasing its users by 30.6% month on month in January to 29.8m.

The paper's UK user total jumped from 8.4m in December to 11.27m in January. According to The Guardian, its jobs site alone attracted 2m unique users.

Fuelled by coverage of US President Barack Obama's inauguration and the ongoing economic woes, UK national newspaper websites all reported double digital growth during the month

Telegraph.co.uk held onto second place after its users shot up 23.1% month on month to 25.9m. Its UK users increased from 6.9m in December to 8.7m in January.

Times Online grabbed third place back from the MailOnline after its unique users increased by 19.8% during the month to hit a record 22.9m.

The site's UK users rose to 8.3m, a 22.9% increase on December.

MailOnline, which includes the Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday sites, posted a 16.3% month-on-month increase in users to 22.88m. Its UK unique users rose to 7.28m, up from 6m in December.

The Sun, which includes the daily newspaper site, as well as NewsoftheWorld.co.uk and Page3.com, jumped 15.6% to 21.9m. Its UK user total also increased from 6.5m in December to 8.17m in January.

Independent.co.uk posted a 17% month-on-month increase to 10.24m unique users, while its UK users increased from 3.6m in December to 4.4m in January.

Mirror Group, spanning Mirror.co.uk, SundayMirror.co.uk and People.co.uk, increased its users by 25% month on month to 6.65m users. UK user totals increased from 3m in December to 3.69m in January, which equates to 56% of its total audience.

Comments

Dan Williamson - 26/02/2009

Incredible figures - I'd be interested to hear which online marketing techniques proved most effective, assuming they're not all solely relying on huge news events to drive incoming traffic. How important / what share of resource is dedicated to SEO, online display ads, RSS, 'read more' URLs in papers etc.