The UK’s leading regional press groups are finding plenty of “good reading” in online audience figures as the shift in platform loyalty grows stronger by the day.
The ABC results for the first half of 2014 continue the marked trend towards the web for news browsing – once the sole prerogative of newspaper readers flicking through the pages of their favourite product.
Local World took the first prize for biggest increase in the year-on-year visitor figures – up 95pc on the corresponding period in 2013.
The rise from 466,000 daily unique browsers to 909,000 saw them overtake Johnston Press but another massive surge of interest for Newsquest’s websites – up 45 pc – has seen them grab top spot in the league table.
Newsquest’s regional sites pushed daily unique browsers from 643,000 to 936,000.
Mark Smith, Newsquest’s digital director said: “We’re particularly delighted with such a dramatic increase in the number of people visiting our sites each day.
“We had previously been slightly ahead of our nearest peer on daily uniques but we’ve now opened up a clear gap which suggests our programme of editorial and product development is bearing fruit.”
In the first half of the year Newsquest launched a new responsive mobile site across its network and has just this week launched a new look desktop site.
There was more of the same at the family-owned Kent Messenger Group.
KentOnline has seen its audience double twice in growth terms year-on-year in successive six-month periods.
This time it rose by 91pc year-on-year, according to the January-June 2014 stats – taking the daily unique browsers from 34,577 to 66,287.
It follows a 96.4pc year-on-year increase for the second half of last year. Monthly unique browsers have broken through the one million barrier to 1.218m, up a third.
The huge audience growth continues a trend that saw KentOnline named the UK’s fastest-growing regional news network in the July to December 2013 ABC release.
KM Group editorial director Ian Carter said: “There are many different strategies for growing your digital audience, but we have opted to concentrate on what we do best – high-quality, relevant local journalism that serves our readers well and delivers the best results for our advertisers.
“Our newspapers remain a vital part of our portfolio but our digital growth, along with the recent strong Rajar result for our radio stations and the award of the TV licence for Maidstone and Tonbridge, show we are continuing to develop as a truly multi-media company.
Here are the multi-platform figures comparing print circulation and daily unique users for Johnston Press, Local World, Newsquest and the Midland News Association.
| Sales | UUs | Change | |
| Johnston Network | – | 801,795 | 24.5pc |
| Blackpoolgazette.co.uk | – | 29,540 | 52.2pc |
| The Gazette, Blackpool | 14,174 | – | -14.2pc |
| Halifaxcourier.co.uk | – | 12,558 | 5.7pc |
| Halifax Courier | 16,747 | – | -10.9pc |
| LEP.co.uk | – | 21,727 | 11.5pc |
| Lancashire Evening Post | 14,902 | – | -13.4pc |
| Peterboroughtoday.co.uk | – | 18,948 | 34.3pc |
| Portsmouth.co.uk | – | 38,253 | 1.9pc |
| The News & Sports Mail, Portsmouth | 27,954 | – | -8.6pc |
| Scotsman.com | – | 160,118 | 33.8pc |
| www.scotsman.com/jobs | – | -24.3pc | |
| The Scotsman | 27,208 | – | – |
| Sunderlandecho.com | – | 32,260 | 56.3pc |
| Sunderland Echo & Football Echo | 20,530 | – | -17.9pc |
| Thestar.co.uk | – | 44,919 | 26.7pc |
| Sheffield Star & Green ‘Un | 23,238 | – | -17.2pc |
| Yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk | – | 61,506 | 44.2pc |
| Yorkshire Evening Post | 23,959 | – | -17.2pc |
| Yorkshire Post.co.uk | 28,658 | 43.2pc | |
| Yorkshire Post | 31,022 | – | -9.2pc |
| KM Group | – | ||
| Kent Online (KM Group) network | 66,287 | 91.7pc | |
| Local World Network (Web) | – | 909,367 | 95.1pc |
| Bristol Post (Web) | – | 59,624 | 82.9pc |
| The Post | 25,182 | – | -14.6pc |
| Cambridge News (Web) | – | 40,326 | 47.5pc |
| Cambridge News | – | ||
| Derby Telegraph (Web) | – | 50,084 | 72.6pc |
| Derby Telegraph | 25,217 | – | -9.1pc |
| Gloucester Citizen/Gloucestershire Echo (Web) | – | 25,519 | -4.3pc |
| Grimsby Telegraph (Web) | 30,127 | 41.8pc | |
| Hull Daily Mail (Web) | – | 62,181 | 61.2pc |
| Hull Daily Mail | 35,117 | – | -8.3pc |
| Leicester Mercury (Web) | – | 49,208 | 53.9pc |
| Leicester Mercury | 35,006 | – | -12.9pc |
| Lincolnshire Echo (Web) | – | 22,465 | 41.6pc |
| Nottingham Post (Web) | – | 53,591 | 41.9pc |
| Nottingham Post | 23,533 | – | -13.1pc |
| Plymouth Herald (Web) | – | 55,400 | 82.3pc |
| The Herald, Plymouth | 21,783 | – | -13.5pc |
| Scunthorpe Telegraph (web) | 18,412 | 20,715 | 100.9pc |
| South Wales Evening Post (Web) | 67.2pc | ||
| South Wales Evening Post | 28,477 | – | -14.9pc |
| Stoke Sentinel (web) | 46,570 | 53.6pc | |
| The Sentinel | 37,481 | -10.5pc | |
| Midland News Association Network | – | 143,335 | 64.0pc |
| Expressandstar.com | – | 106,231 | 60.9pc |
| Shropshirestar.com | – | 74.2pc | |
| Shropshire Star | 36,756 | – | -14.7pc |
| Newsquest Media Group | – | 936,909 | 45.5pc |
| dailyecho.co.uk | – | 55,744 | 42.9pc |
| Southern Daily Echo | 22,397 | – | -16.6pc |
| eveningtimes.co.uk | – | 34,139 | 73.1pc |
| Glasgow Evening Times | 33,397 | – | -14.9pc |
| heraldscotland.com | – | 87,795 | 37.2pc |
| The Herald | 37,728 | – | -8.1pc |
| Sunday Herald | 25,125 | – | 1.0pc |
| lancashiretelegraph.co.uk | 37,662 | 28.8pc | |
| Lancashire Telegraph | 13,092 | – | -28.4pc |
| newsshopper.co.uk | – | 24,293 | 47.6pc |
| Oxfordmail.co.uk | – | 26,728 | 46.5pc |
| Oxford Mail | 12,773 | – | -22.9pc |
| Swindonadvertiser.co.uk | – | 24,748 | 16.8pc |
| Swindon Advertiser | 11,987 | – | -22.7pc |
| theargus.co.uk | – | 40,236 | 17.7pc |
| The Argus, Brighton | 14,370 | – | -13.5pc |
| theboltonnews.co.uk | – | 35,772 | 62.7pc |
| The Bolton News | 12,351 | – | -28.8pc |
| thenorthernecho.co.uk | – | 43,916 | 47.0pc |
| Northern Echo | 30,735 | – | -12.7pc |
| thepress.co.uk | – | 39,738 | 40.8pc |
| The Press, York | 19,643 | – | -10.9pc |
| thetelegraphandargus.co.uk | – | 45,225 | 44.6pc |
| Bradford Telegraph & Argus | 18,906 | – | -12.6pc |
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what local advertisers will want to know though is what % of that traffic is local. I bet it will be hard to find out – so much of the traffic is passing random stuff from all over the globe – fine for big brands but no good to butcher/baker…step in the right direction though.
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Don’t want to pour ice on the whole think (being very on topic!) but if more people are buying internet enabled devices phones, tablets, computers then you would think web traffic would inevitably rise – it might not mean that the industry is doing something right it’s just following the wave set by society and at some point it will plateau.
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