The general trend for UK newspaper sites is increased unique users and page views, according to figures from the Audit Bureau of Circulations Electronic (ABCe). Guardian.co.uk unique users reached 20 million, a 12% increase, which makes it the first UK paper site to do so. Meanwhile, the Sun Online had the highest page views ever at nearly 291 million.

Telegraph.co.uk's unique users grew by 179% year-on-year, a 7% increase since May. Its page views were at a record of nearly 152 million.

Page views generally increased, with the Guardian.co.uk's at a record of almost 183 million.

"Unique users is still useful for users and advertisers because it is a measurement everyone understands," said Emily Bell, director of digital content of Guardian News and Media.

However, she pointed out that time spent on a site may be more interesting and that the Guardian had a 9% increase in high-frequency users since March.

Increases in unique users since May were seen at Guardian.co.uk (12% growth to over 20 million), Times Online (3% growth to over 16 million), Sun Online (4% growth to over 15 million), Mirror.co.uk (12% increase to over 5 million) and Independent.co.uk  (10% growth to over 7 million).

Even though its traffic was up by 69% year-on-year in June, Mail Online had a 14% decrease to over 16 million unique users since May as well as page views that declined to 119 million.

Source: Guardian.co.uk