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September 25, 2008

ABCe: Times Online leaps to third place in August

By Press Gazette

Guardian.co.uk remains the UK’s biggest online newspaper according to ABCe’s online report for August, after it attracted 23.11m global unique users last month, closely followed by Telegraph.co.uk on 22.05m.

The Guardian added 2.5m unique users last month and it also retains the largest number of UK-based online readers: 8.77m or 38 per cent of its total audience. The Guardian’s 23.11m unique users represents a 46 per cent traffic increase year on year.

Telegraph Media Group say it was pleased with its headline global figure of 22.05m – a 125 per cent year-on-year increase – of which 6.29m were UK-based.

Edward Roussel, digital editor of TMG, said: ‘Our August traffic was stronger than we expected, reaching a record high for global unique users and page views. Our coverage of the Beijing Olympics and the war in Georgia was particularly successful.’

Mike Moore, general manager for digital at TMG, said: ‘We continue to execute our digital strategy and are delighted to have consolidated our six million figure for UK unique users.

‘We are continuing the redesign of Telegraph.co.uk, with the launch of a new Telegraph Finance channel earlier this week, and expect to build on the successful global and UK growth going forward.”

Times Online moved from fourth to third place with 19.6m unique users in August – an increase of 3.2m on the 16.4m it received in July – a 92.3 per cent year-on-year increase that puts it ahead of Mail Online, with 17.46m.

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The paper put its success down to ‘strong consumer demand for news and comment on UK and World events’such as the Olympics and the US presidential elections.

Times Online editor-in-chief Anne Spackman said: ‘These are a fantastic set of results. Our audience continues to grow as they turn to our website just as they come to our papers for must-read coverage of major news events.

“The steady rise in our global audience is testament to the power of the Times brand and the strength our coverage.”

Mail Online, which has a large foreign audience, particularly in the US – 70 per cent or 12.17m of its 17.46m unique users are non-domestic – saw a 50.78 per cent increase year on year.

In April, Mail Online topped the ABCe table for May with 18.1m uniques but now finds itself in fourth place.

The Times’s News International counterpart The Sun received 15.98m unique users in August, 6.36m in the UK, a 50.89 per cent increase year on year.

The Independent saw a slight increase from its July figure of 6.59m to 6.62m, an 89.6 year-on-year increase.

Thanks in part to a Mirror.co.uk relaunch at the end of July, Mirror Group’s websites reached a total audited online audience of 5,575,008 unique users for August, a month-on-month increase of seven per cent.

The figure includes traffic for the Daily Mirror, Sunday Mirror, People, Daily Record and Sunday Mail, and 56.7 per cent of the sites’ users are UK-based.

According to the company’s internal measurements, unique users for the group’s sites are up by 67.6 per cent year on year.

Mark Hollinshead, the newly appointed managing director of Trinity Mirror‘s nationals division, said: ‘Our month-on-month increase in unique users is testament to the success of our ongoing development of mirror.co.uk and its successful relaunch at the end of July. We continue to grow an engaged, UK audience delivering strong year-on-year growth.’

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