Scottish daily The Herald averaged more than half a million monthly users on its website during the second quarter of the year according to company-wide statistics published today.
Newsquest has become the latest group to publish new ABCe six-month audits joining Northcliffe Media, GMG Regional Media and Johnston Press.
The overall number of users for Newsquest sites during the period April – June increased by 21pc to 5,111,997 – up from 4,493,405 the previous year.
Average monthly user numbers for the 12 biggest individual sites were as follows:
Theargus.co.uk (Brighton) 245,764
Eveningtimes.co.uk (Glasgow) 222,768
Thenorthernecho.co.uk 209,582
Dailyecho.co.uk (Southampton) 203,287
Sundayherald.com 197,249
Lancashiretelegraph.co.uk 175,098
Thepress.co.uk (York) 171,166
Thetelegrapghandargus.co.uk (Bradford) 167,009
Theboltonnews.co.uk 147,022
Oxfordmail.net 146,703
Swindonadvertiser.co.uk 83,434
The six-monthly audits require continuous reporting, and enables regional media owners to report their online data alongside their print figures. The certificate reports to industry agreed metrics through JICWEBS (Joint Industry Committee for Web Standards).
Most regional newspaper publishers have previously reported their website figures only on an ad hoc basis.
Martyn Gates, director of newspapers at ABC, comments: “It is fantastic to see Newsquest signing up to the ABCe six-monthly certificate.
“This clearly demonstrates the importance for media owners to provide advertisers with figures which are credible, comparable and transparent by committing to have their site traffic figures independently verified to industry agreed standards.”
Roger Green, managing director of Newsquest Digital Media, added: “We are committed to the transparent reporting of our network in order to demonstrate not only the size of our audiences across the UK, but more importantly the localness of those audiences.
“The growing online power of our local and regional media brands combined with our traditional strength in print deliver unrivalled pan-platform opportunities for advertisers”
Johnston Press’s ABCe results, issued last Friday, showed the overall number of users running at 5,878,108.
Users for its leading newspaper sites were as follows:
LEP.co.uk (Preston) 305,147
Yorkshirepost.co.uk 269,647
Yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk 253,620
Thestar.co.uk (Sheffield) 239,215
Sunderlandecho.com 235,052
Portsmouth.co.uk 145,560
Blackpoolgazette.co.uk 124,995
Peterboroughtoday.co.uk 120,269
Halifaxcourier.co.uk 107,904
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