ABC December: National news sites hit hard over festive period
The festive season took its toll on online news sites in December, with significant declines in web traffic across the board.
A -9.9% decline over the month cost body shaming/benefits-obsessed Mail Online almost 1.5 million average unique daily browsers; however, that was one of the smaller declines.
Second to the Mail, guardian.co.uk was down -15.4% (1.5 million), while a -19.6% decrease in online browsers saw Telegraph Online lose almost 1 million.
The downwards trend continued with Trinity Mirror Nationals, which lost 15.8% of its online audience in December, while the Independent was down -14.7%, Metro down -23% and express.co.uk down -18.7%.
Despite the ditching of its paywall at the end of November, Sun traffic was down -5.6% month on month, translating to a little over 91,000 unique visitors.
The only lucky news site to see an upwards lift in traffic was Daily Post (Wales), adding an extra 958 unique browsers after a 1.3% increase.
| Site | Dec 15 Daily Average Unique Browsers | Nov 15 Daily Average Unique Browsers | Change | % Change |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MailOnline | 13,182,486 | 14,631,628 | -1,449,142 | -9.9 |
| theguardian.com | 7,847,537 | 9,276,546 | -1,429,009 | -15.4 |
| Telegraph | 4,038,417 | 5,022,155 | -983,738 | -19.6 |
| Trinity Mirror Nationals | 3,994,246 | 4,743,246 | -749,000 | -15.8 |
| The Independent | 2,796,267 | 3,277,301 | -481,034 | -14.7 |
| The Sun | 1,525,662 | 1,616,705 | -91,043 | -5.6 |
| Metro | 1,117,256 | 1,450,287 | -333,031 | -23.0 |
| express.co.uk | 1,065,378 | 1,310,798 | -245,420 | -18.7 |
| dailystar.co.uk | 594,230 | 651,577 | -57,347 | -8.8 |
| manchestereveningnews.co.uk | 558,095 | 585,100 | -27,005 | -4.6 |
| Evening Standard | 440,299 | 519,738 | -79,439 | -15.3 |
| www.liverpoolecho.co.uk | 422,360 | 469,356 | -46,996 | -10.0 |
| Wales Online | 258,964 | 314,973 | -56,009 | -17.8 |
| Newcastle Chroniclelive.co.uk | 203,436 | 205,781 | -2,345 | -1.1 |
| Birmingham Mail | 196,824 | 222,891 | -26,067 | -11.7 |
| Teesside Evening Gazette | 101,305 | 102,874 | -1,569 | -1.5 |
| Daily Post (Wales) | 77,177 | 76,219 | 958 | 1.3 |
| Coventry Telegraph | 56,067 | 61,891 | -5,824 | -9.4 |
| Huddersfield Daily Examiner | 52,772 | 54,061 | -1,289 | -2.4 |
Visit Mediatel’s online database for more digital breakdowns.