Below are statements by the following publishers: The Guardian, The Independent, The Standard and Trinity Mirror.
The Guardian
Tanya Cordrey, chief digital officer, Guardian News and Media: “The Guardian’s momentum continues to build as we smash through yet another traffic record. Readers came to the Guardian in May for sharp election reporting and intelligent analysis – election night was our second biggest day ever with the live blogs and interactives proving very popular.
“We also saw a strong surge in traffic for our live blog for the Mayweather/Pacquiao fight, which attracted readers from around the world - further demonstrating the breadth and depth of the Guardian’s journalism and world-class credentials. We increasingly see international audiences turning to the Guardian first on key world events such as our recent reporting on the Charlie Hebdo attack or coverage of the Cricket World Cup."
Background:
Digital ABCs May 2015
Monthly unique browsers
129,436,177 including off-platform (MoM: +4.6%)
123,837,966 excluding off-platform (YoY: +26.1%, MoM: +3.5%)
Daily average unique browsers
7,498,470 including off-platform (MoM: +4.1%)
7,172,642 excluding off-platform (YoY: +31.4% MoM: +3.3%)
Monthly page impressions
815,483,042 including off-platform (MoM: +10.4%)
801,711,575 excluding off-platform (YoY: +27.2%, MoM: 10.2%)
Commentary from the publishers: The Guardian had a strong month, with our highest ever unique browsers and page impressions. Our year-on-year growth remains strong, with +26.1% to monthly unique browsers. Our monthly growth has also been strong, adding over +4% to both daily and monthly unique browsers.
Unsurprisingly the UK election was a strong driver of traffic this month.The election night was our second biggest day for unique visitors ever with 9.6m visitors to our site. However, it was the biggest day ever for page views, with over 5m more views than the second largest day - the 2015 Oscars.
Driven by the British election, the UK added +13.5% to their unique browsers. This has pushed the UK back into the lead for total unique browsers with 32% of the total, with the US in second place contributing 28% of unique browsers.
Sports reporting continues to pull in readers from across the world and the live blog for the Mayweather/Pacquiao fight was one of the most viewed pieces in May.
The Independent
Independent.co.uk celebrates continued growth across key global metrics
* Global unique monthly browsers has risen an impressive 49% year on year, hitting 54m for the first time, up from 36.5m last May and with a 13.4% increase from April.
* In the UK, unique monthly browsers saw a year-on-year growth of 63%, from 14.1m to 23m, with a boost in the number of browsers of 22.8% from April (18.8m).
* The site achieved 2.6m global daily unique users – up a from 1.6m the previous year (60%) and an increase of 13.1% from April (2.3m).
* The UK reached a record-breaking total of 1.3m daily unique users – jumping a remarkable 80.2% year-on-year and 23.6% from April.
Christian Broughton, Digital Editor, The Independent, said: “We tried to offer a new voice in political reporting - and it worked. People really do care about how the country is run, but many are turned off by a political system they don’t trust, where too many news outlets act like extensions of the predictable party campaign machines.
"So we represented different sides of the big issues. We focused on bringing high quality and a truly independent voice to the issues people really care about, which are not always the subjects politicians want to put centre stage. It certainly surprised a lot of people to see that a political map showing who would be running the country under different electoral systems went viral on i100. But then i100 has always been about high quality, 'seriously addictive’ news, not just LOLs. And when you are having fun, it’s nice when you don’t know exactly which politician will be the butt of the joke before you start reading.
“A number of the team across The Independent an i100 really shone, but two new political reporters deserve special mention: Matt Dathan and Jon Stone."
The Standard
Standard.co.uk breaks new records across key global and UK metrics
* Global unique monthly browsers have risen an impressive 77% year on year, hitting 10m for the first time ever, up from 5.7m last year and 19.5% from April (8.5m).
* In the UK, unique monthly browsers reached a remarkable 6.4m – up a staggering 64% since May last year and 11.6% from April’s 5.7m.
* The site also saw a record number of global daily unique users at 443,465 – rising 13.3% from April (391,422) and a whopping 75% year on year.
* The UK hit a significant 279,449 daily unique users – growing 6.8% from April’s users, and a notable 67% compared to last year (167,683).
Zach Leonard, MD of Digital, ESI Media, said: “We are delighted to have exceeded 10m global unique users for the Evening Standard website. It is a testament to the investment in Standard.co.uk and the hard work from everyone involved with the site.
A third back-to-back record month is a great boost as we continue to develop innovative ways of expanding our digital presence and build on the strength of the Evening Standard brand.”
Trinity Mirror
Trinity Mirror’s digital portfolio enjoyed its second best-ever performance last month, according to the latest ABCe figures released today.
Pete Picton, Editorial Director of Mirror Online, said: “There were significant traffic rises for Mirror.co.uk during the birth of Princess Charlotte and the General Election, but even these exceeded our expectations. These two big hits brought in new readers to our brand, and they stayed throughout May, resulting in a strong monthly figure. Video was crucial to the success of our coverage, with the live stream of Princess Charlotte’s birth announcement attracting more than one million combined minutes of viewing.
“Our 24 hour election coverage performed far better than expected with our newly created online politics team working closely with the integrated print team. Election stories lead the top ten most popular on the site into the following Sunday.
“Sport was another key driver of traffic with the superfight between Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather delivering a traffic spike which kept pace with the surge from the royal baby.
“May was also the second best ever month for the Mirror’s social traffic. Popular stories ranged from a hard-hitting piece on a family of nine evicted from their home, to a story about tragic rugby league player Danny Jones, who died during a match.
“Our mobile growth continues to accelerate. Of Mirror.co.uk’s 71m unique users, more than 42.2m came via mobile, a year-on-year jump of 114%. Regionally, the Manchester Evening News led the way in May, with 6.7m of its 10.4m unique users coming from mobile, a year-on-year increase of 214%.”
