A regional publisher’s entertainments website has achieved one million unique users in a single month for the first time in its history.
Johnston Press has announced its WOW247 site reached the milestone figure in July, six months ahead of its target.
The site, which offers entertainment news and listings, was relaunched in May, with a network of editors focusing on 10 cities across the UK.
The 1,035,753 unique users figure for July come internally from Johnston Press, provided by IBM Digital Analytics, and has not been independently audited.
Steven Thomas, general manager of WOW247, said: “We’re thrilled with the growth of WOW247, and it looks like we’re on track for this to continue in August.
“It’s such an exciting platform, and its success is testament to the unparalleled quality of the up-to-the-minute, city-centric material provided by our network of bloggers.
“Our contributors have first-hand expertise within their local area, giving users the inside scoop on the different things happening in their city.”
He added: “Making the site fully mobile responsive has ensured that our audience can access content however and whenever they like.
“By reaching one million users, it is clear that our ambitious plans for growth are paying off, and we’re proud to be able to offer such a compelling opportunity to commercial clients and partners.”
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A million uniques for an exciting platform which offers such a compelling opportunity to commercial clients and partners.
I’m so happy I could burst. No, really. I am. I could.
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“City-centric” is where it’s at for me and the “inside scoop” is what I’ve always looked for as a journalist. This is fantastic. What financial return is there per “unique user” (what is one of them, please?). Even a mere 25p equates to a quarter of a million quid, so,hurrah, we’re all saved. Brilliant.
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Wow “20 things we love about living in Cardiff” haven’t seen that type of exciting article anywhere else….how ground breaking.
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An interesting measure of large traffic sites is the number who then like / follow on twitter. This helps work out if people bounce off or if it is something they wish to then engage in and opt in to more of.
WOW is tiny.
4,850 people like it on FB
7,118 follow on twitter.
I would imagine this is doing great guns off generic content, however that makes it no different to viralnova or similar content gushers.
Another question that is being ignored is the cost of the traffic, is it all organic or paid?
1m users is easy enough – you can buy sites on Flippa that do millions of PV’s for peanuts, but to keep it going you need to pump paid traffic to it…
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That’s better than losing 1 million users!
A steady stream of viewers for decent ents content could attract some decent advertisers and pull in a younger audience.
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Yes, it is indeed better than losing a million users. Granted. But passing something off as being much, much better than it really is, well, that’s just pretty poor form.
As an industry, we’re looking for the answers that will either get us out of the mire or help us to survive better within it.
This idea clearly isn’t it, therefore it shouldn’t be celebrated.
I’m not saying for a minute that any initiative with a modicum of success should be dismissed, but it shouldn’t be heralded with bunting etc.
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I’m not seeing any bunting here? I’m seeing a good site reaching a reasonable milestone and a regional publisher trying something different.. Fair play.
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RT has hit the nail squarely on the head – the Facebook and Twitter figures (which may themselves have been subject to a degree of positive manipulation) tell a truer story. There are very well paid people in JP whose self-promoted achievements are built on sand.
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It is part of the answer.
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Confused
It isn’t much about bring better than something it’s about turning UV into paying customers and making revenue which in turn will help fund the business
No points for someone window shopping: looking in a shop window and not buying
I’d be impressed if someone reports commercial ad revenue money bring made from a digital site as opposed to how many, in effect, free viewers they have which is a pointless exercise
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