US election boosts UK newspaper websites

The US presidential elections last month triggered a drive in traffic to quality news websites in the US – with Times Online and Independent.co.uk up more than 5% month on month and guardian.co.uk topping 26 million unique users for the first time, according to the latest data from ABCe.

In November, Times Online saw a 5.5% month on month increase to 21,598,720 unique users, up 75.8% year on year, while Independent.co.uk experienced a 5.7% increase from October to 8,888,221 unique users, an impressive increase of 92.4% from November last year.

Mirror Group Digital saw another small rise, up 1.4% to 5,916,155 unique users – the site only joined the monthly ABCe audits in April and does not give year on year figures.

However, November was less positive for the remaining ABCe newspaper sites, with the Sun reporting a 4% month on month dip to 16,427,790 unique users, despite seeing a 41.5% year on year increase.

The Mail Online fell by 1.5% to 20,869,627 unique users, while Telegraph.co.uk dipped by 1% to 2,958,505 unique users, though its year on year rise was 79.4%.

Guardian.co.uk and Times Online both saw the proportion of UK unique user figure drop between October and November, as traffic from users outside the UK increased.

Around 37% of traffic to guardian.co.uk was from users within the UK, while Times Online had 33%, which is about 7,231,485 domestic users.

However, Telegraph.co.uk increased its UK audience to 7,394,866 unique users, 32% of its total audience, while Mail Online’s figure was up by 31%, or 6,441,804.

The Sun and Mirror sites also have a higher proportion of UK users, reflecting a more UK focused news agenda.

Sun Online’s network had a UK audience of 42% or 6,936,051 during November, up from 38% in October, however, Mirror.co.uk still has the highest proportion of UK users – the site recorded 57% of users or 3,372,104 unique users in the UK.

ABC Electronic: 01442 870 800 www.abce.org.uk