Newspaper web traffic soars in January

Newspaper websites all saw a leap in unique users in January after the December holidays with guardian.co.uk seeing the biggest jump of 30.59 per cent.

Guardian.co.uk recorded 29,811,671 unique users for the month and was up 51.6 per cent year-on-year.

Telegraph online was ranked second once more, up 23.05 per cent on December with 25,904,722 users and up 109.7 per cent year-on-year. Times Online just pipped MailOnline to be ranked third with 22,898,300 users, up 19.78 per cent on December.

Mail Online rose 16.34 per cent to 22,877,431.

From the popular sector of newspaper brands The Sun posted a 15.55 per cent jump to 21,910,839 while rival Mirror Group Digital rose 24.3 per cent to 6,646, 495.

The rise in website visitors is also likely to be driven by the need for more news about the economy and the impact it is having on jobs and livelihoods in the UK.

Popular stories that caught the imagination are likely to have included coverage of reality TV star Jade Goody’s terminal illness and the plane crash on the Hudson River in the middle of the month.

Newspaper groups will be glad of the rise in traffic as in-paper advertising revenues fall. Trinity Mirror reported results today that included a 27.1 per cent rise in digital revenues to £43.6 million.
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