UK online news readership figures soar

Posted by Soraya Kishtwari on February 27, 2009 at 1:48 PM

Integrated working seems to be paying dividends for the Guardian online and other UK newspaper websites. Amongst tales of doom and gloom around the media industry, it comes as welcome news that even though advertising and circulation figures among newspapers are generally falling, UK online readership figures, at least, are booming.

According to the latest official audit figures published by ABCe - which, among other things, studies web activity - all of the seven online editions of the national newspapers analysed showed a record jump in traffic.

Leading the trend was the Guardian.co.uk site, which fell just short of 30 million different users during the month of January. According to an article by Jemima Kiss published yesterday on the Guardian website, the soar in numbers can be partly attributed to events such as Obama's inauguration, the Israeli/Palestinian conflict and the ongoing economic downturn that marked the beginning of the year.

Emily Bell, Director of digital content for Guardian News & Media said: "It's a great testament to our first month of truly integrated working." The Guardian integrated its newsroom last December, moving staff from its online and print operations to new premises in King's Place.

The Telegraph came in second with almost 26 million unique visitors, a significant 110% growth in traffic from January 2008. The Times and Sunday Times website just overtook the Mail to reach third place, with almost 23 million unique viewers.

The obvious question raised by these impressive figures is, how can papers find a more effective way to profit from their growing online audiences?

Source: Guardian.co.uk, ABCe.org.uk