Johnston Press’s flagship Scottish titles achieved record-breaking web traffic levels and a huge boost in print circulation during the final stages of the Scottish independence vote, the company has revealed.
As people voted last Thursday, The Scotsman’s sales rose 13pc while the Edinburgh Evening News saw a 5pc increase on the previous week.
The following day, the two papers’ circulation shot up by 21pc week-on-week as the results were announced.
And The Scotsman’s post-result analysis on the Saturday culminated in a peak in print circulation, boosting sales by an impressive 25pc week-on-week.
Meanwhile online, on the day of voting itself, www.scotsman.com achieved a staggering one million page views for the first time ever – 50pc higher than the previous record.
And The Scotsman’s referendum microsite, which aggregated the best independence content from around the web, drawing nearly 60,000 unique browsers on the day of voting, four times higher than any other day since it went live.
Lucy Sinclair, chief marketing officer of Johnston Press, said: “We are immensely proud of these latest figures and the dramatic expansion of our reach as a result of our dedicated editorial coverage of one of the biggest decisions this country has seen in recent years.
“Our teams ensured our Scottish referendum coverage was provided to our audiences in a plethora of different formats, from live updates, to a deeper post-decision analysis, and the results have been staggering.
“It’s clear that there is a strong appetite for receiving good quality reporting on local issues on the ground, and we are committed to ensuring we can provide this for all local communities in the UK across our titles.”
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Not wishing to wotsit on the chips of JP’s hardworking Scottish teams who undoubtedly went above and beyond to cover this major story…
…But do The Scotsman hits include those people who mistakenly opened the floating ad which popped up annoyingly on every JP website in the rest of the non-voting United Kingdom the week before the vote?
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The Scotsman and Evening News report rises of 13 pc, 5pc and 21pc of what exactly? What were their actual print sales? And, noticeably, no mention of Scotland on Sunday figures.
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Usual JP smoke and mirrors.
Im sure almost every publisher in Scotland got an increase in traffic over the Referendum.
But trust the JP spin-doctors to dive in and say ‘We’re brilliant! Look at us, we’re the best’, when clearly they’re not.
At least the few extra quid can go towards compensating the good Rev Campbell.
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Ex-JP employee, Edinburgh – common knowledge in the industry that you don’t quote the precise figure during an audit period. As for Showbeastie – how is this piece smoke and mirrors. It’s reporting the facts on the back of a lot of hard work by a lot of talented, committed people.
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Long John Silver – According to HTFP, the Sunday Herald has revealed that its internal figures showed a circulation of 49,921 for a recent referendum-linked edition – a year-on-year increase of 111pc. Strange they are able to substantiate huge percentage increase claims with figures but JP can’t because “you don’t quote the precise figure during an audit period.” The truth will out.
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