Below are statements by the following publishers: The Guardian, The Independent, The Standard and Trinity Mirror.
The Guardian
Guardian reports record digital traffic to start 2015
The Guardian has passed yet another digital traffic milestone, with over 120 million monthly unique browsers accessing theguardian.com in January 2015, according to the latest digital ABC figures released today. This surpasses the news organisation’s previous record of 114 million unique browsers, reached in September last year.
In the same month as the Guardian completed the switch to its redesigned website, traffic rose 14% month-on-month and almost 35% year-on-year. Monthly page views were also up by over 25% year-on-year.
The exceptional growth was seen across all territories, with a rise of over 21% year-on-year in the UK, and over 42% year-on-year across the rest of the world. Mobile traffic has also seen a phenomenal increase of 98% since January 2014.
January’s news agenda was dominated by the Paris attacks - with live blogs and analysis pieces performing particularly strongly as people sought up-to-the-minute information and intelligent insight. Other stories attracting a high volume of readers included video features, a humourous look at the controversy surrounding the reformulated Cadbury’s Creme Egg and a Comment is Free piece on the real-life American Sniper.
David Pemsel, deputy chief executive of Guardian News & Media, commented: “The Guardian continues to go from strength to strength and break new ground - all thanks to the unwavering quality and integrity of our journalism. Our reporting, comment and analysis is world-class and our investment in digital innovation has helped us develop the best possible platform to reach an increasing number of readers across the globe. It’s a fantastic start to the year.”
Monthly unique browsers:
121,733,045 (MoM: +14% YoY: +34.7%)
Monthly page views:
762.8M (MoM:+18.3%, YoY: +25.9%)
Daily average unique browsers:
7M (MoM: +18.6%, YoY: +39.9%)
The Independent
The record-breaking traffic levels show that the unprecedented growth of independent.co.uk throughout 2014 is continuing into 2015. January’s ABC figures highlight impressive expansion of the title’s worldwide digital reach, with global monthly unique browsers up 53% year on year to 52.5 million. Meanwhile, UK monthly unique browsers have risen 47% since January 2014, to 20.2 million.
For the first time, this month The Independent also exceeded 200 million global page views, with 100 million page views in the UK.
The figures include the growing audience for i100 which attracted an astonishing 5.2m unique browsers in January, passing 5 million for the first time, in only its sixth month since launch.
Christian Broughton, Digital Editor of The Independent and i100, said: “These new record figures are testament to the excellent teams we now have in place on independent.co.uk and i100.co.uk. It’s an exciting time for us. We have a big combined platform now, and big ambitions. We’re expanding the editorial staff again over the year ahead, adding new specialisms and building on existing strengths.”
The Standard
Standard.co.uk smashes 5m milestone with record-breaking UK figures
Standard.co.uk celebrates best ever month for global page views & all key UK metrics.
* UK unique monthly users leapt 20.3% from 4.3m in December to reach a record 5.3m in January – delivering another stellar month for standard.co.uk.
* Global monthly browsers climbed 20.8% from 6.3m to 7.6m, while the site also recorded its highest ever global & UK page impressions. Worldwide views were at 32.4m – up an impressive 21.2% on 26.7m in December – while UK page impressions rose 23.3% from 19.4m to 24m.
* 4.3m users accessed the site via a mobile device during January (57% of all users) generating 10.8m page views (40% of total). Global visitors to the standard.co.uk mobile site are up a staggering 90.0% year on year while UK mobile numbers rocketed 98.0%.
Trinity Mirror
Trinity Mirror Digital Smashes The 100m Barrier
Trinity Mirror’s digital portfolio posted a record month for traffic in January, passing the 100 million unique browsers mark for the first time, according to the latest ABCe figures published today.
Monthly unique browsers across all combined national and regional sites hit 102,990,697 in January, up 27 per cent month-on-month and a huge 77 per cent increase from the same time last year, reflecting a continued focus across the group on digital output. The national Mirror sites (Mirror.co.uk and Daily Record) contributed the bulk of the traffic with a combined 83,653,738 total monthly browsers, with the Mirror’s unique browsers surpassing 75m in the month. This is up 27 per cent on the previous month and 80 per cent year-on-year.
The digital growth at the Mirror is also evident in social media, with figures from social monitoring service NewsWhip1 showing that more people engaged with content from Mirror.co.uk on Facebook in January than any other source in the UK, including the Daily Mail and BBC. The Mirror was the seventh most shared global Facebook publisher in January and the biggest in the UK, with 17.5 million interactions – up from just 1.5 million the previous January.
Video traffic has also seen impressive growth for the Mirror.co.uk with views increasing five fold year-on-year.
The most popular stories were reflective of the broad topics covered by the Mirror with a mix of news, sport, TV and celebrity stories contributing the highest amount of shares, including coverage of the Charlie Hebdo massacre, the death of Coronation Street star Anne Kirkbride and stories about Coleen Nolan, football transfer deadline day and Celebrity Big Brother.
There were also record months for several key regional sites, including the Manchester Evening News, Liverpool Echo, Chronicle Live (Newcastle), Gazette Live (Teesside), Wales Online and the Birmingham Mail.
Although a seasonal increase is expected in January as many readers return to work after the holidays and with an increase in new mobile devices received for Christmas, traffic was also driven by local stories with national interest. The Newcastle Chronicle’s ongoing coverage of the mugging of Alan Barnes and subsequent GoFundMe charity fundraising appeal was one of the biggest regional stories of the month. Dedicated coverage of the death of local Coronation Street star Anne Kirkbride was the biggest story for the Manchester Evening News, while Steven Gerrard’s announcement that he would be leaving Anfield saw readers flocking to Liverpool Echo’s web and mobile sites. Severe weather and football news ahead of the transfer deadline were also popular topics across regional sites.
Pete Picton, Editorial Director of Mirror Online, said: “January was a phenomenal month for all of our sites, reinforcing our dedication to, and success, in digital. Passing these milestones and seeing the impact of building a loyal and engaged audience through mobile, online and social media shows that a legacy newspaper brand can not only adapt to a digital age but be successful in doing so.
“The digital content reinforces the Mirror brand and editorial standards perfectly with a mix of news, sport, celebrity and TV. Great exclusives and timely news and opinion are further enhanced with live blogging and video, enabling us to drive greater engagement with the readers and ensure we are playing a key role in their digital lives.”
