Guardian.co.uk reclaims newspaper website crown

The website for The Guardian and The Observer reclaimed its mantle as the most popular newspaper website in the UK in today’s (July 24) ABCes, and also became the first audited site to reach more than 20 million unique users a month.

Traffic for Guardian.co.uk was up nearly 12% month on month in June to reach 20.5 million (20,499,858). The performance puts it back at the top of the online rankings, a position held by the Mail Online in May and Telegraph.co.uk in April.

In stark contrast, Mail Online, which includes traffic from DailyMail.co.uk and MailonSunday.co.uk, saw a record 14.4% drop in users to 16,015,211. Telegraph.co.uk recorded a 6.57% rise in users to 19,712,622.

Elsewhere, June proved to be a month of growth for the UK’s press online.

Figures for Mirror Group’s network of websites Mirror.co.uk, SundayMirror.co.uk and People.co.uk, were up 12.35% to 5,426,320. The second public audit for the Independent New Media’s Independent.co.uk also saw double-digit growth, up 10.44 per cent to 7,215,928.

News International’s Times Online achieved another steadily monthly rise, up 3.1% to 16,363,630 – enough to stay ahead of its tabloid stablemate Sun.co.uk, up 3.76% to 15,510,242.