Johnston Press scored a one-two in the latest web growth figures produced by ABC.
The Belfast News Letter and Peterborough Telegraph’s websites had the highest number of daily average unique browsers in the first six months of 2016, compared to the corresponding period in the previous year.
Both sites were among a number to receive a makeover by JP in recent months.
However, the company did not top the overall regional publishers’ charts – with the independent KM Group claiming the highest growth between January and July.
The News Letter, pictured above, scored an average of 20,365 daily average UB, representing a 73.4pc year-on-year rise, while the Telegraph’s 31,998 meant a 69.1pc increase.
Trinity Mirror weekly the Southport Visiter came in third, while the sith-placed Glasgow Evening Times was the highest placed Newsquest website.
Of those reported, only four websites – The Scotsman, the Derby Telegraph, the Cambridge News and the Scunthorpe Telegraph – experienced a year-on-year daily average UB decrease.
The full list of audience figures for individual newspaper online platforms is as follows:
Website | Daily average UB | Y-on-Ypc |
Belfast News Letter | 20,365 | 73.4 |
Peterborough Telegraph | 31,998 | 69.1 |
Southport Visiter | 14,363 | 54.9 |
Wigan Evening Post | 26,669 | 52.7 |
Glasgow Evening Times | 73,207 | 51.2 |
Wales Online | 392,220 | 50 |
Yorkshire Post | 37,917 | 48 |
Lincolnshire Echo | 32,996 | 38.7 |
Huddersfield Daily Examiner | 66,281 | 38.4 |
Manchester Evening News | 747,713 | 30.4 |
Oxford Mail | 38,973 | 28.3 |
Express & Star, Wolverhampton | 151,754 | 26.8 |
The Press, York | 55,922 | 26.4 |
Bristol Post | 110,419 | 24.8 |
Lancashire Telegraph | 59,116 | 23.9 |
Bolton News | 62,214 | 23.8 |
Bradford Telegraph & Argus | 76,166 | 23.7 |
Eastern Daily Press | 65,478 | 23.2 |
Nottingham Post | 89,058 | 22.8 |
Hull Daily Mail | 104,167 | 21.5 |
Sunderland Echo | 55,897 | 20.3 |
Lancashire Evening Post | 34,021 | 20 |
Leicester Mercury | 82,874 | 19.6 |
The Sentinel, Stoke | 83,520 | 19 |
Shields Gazette | 27,064 | 18.7 |
The Star, Sheffield | 73,248 | 17.5 |
Northampton Chronicle & Echo | 36,116 | 16.5 |
Ipswich Star | 22,327 | 16.2 |
North Wales Daily Post | 81,423 | 15.4 |
The Herald, Glasgow | 96,080 | 13.7 |
Local World Network (Web) | 1,393,400 | 13.4 |
Hartlepool Mail | 21,288 | 13.2 |
Shropshire Star | 56,392 | 12.9 |
Birmingham Mail | 239,863 | 12.7 |
Teesside Evening Gazette | 106,074 | 12.7 |
Liverpool Echo | 524,549 | 12.1 |
The News, Portsmouth | 50,081 | 11.5 |
Swindon Advertiser | 34,463 | 10.6 |
East Anglian Daily Times | 23,264 | 10.6 |
Gloucestershire Live | 38,116 | 10.1 |
Norwich Evening News | 16,344 | 9.9 |
Chronicle Live, Newcastle | 237,111 | 8.6 |
Blackpool Gazette | 33,086 | 8.3 |
Coventry Telegraph | 62,938 | 6.7 |
The Argus, Brighton | 54,365 | 6.4 |
Yorkshire Evening Post | 74,166 | 6.1 |
Plymouth Herald | 80,777 | 5.9 |
Edinburgh Evening News | 61,123 | 5.7 |
Grimsby Telegraph | 40,830 | 4.4 |
Southern Daily Echo | 84,877 | 4 |
South Wales Evening Post | 58,212 | 3.2 |
Northern Echo | 65,188 | 2 |
Scotsman | 104,001 | -2.4 |
Derby Telegraph | 71,585 | -2.7 |
Cambridge News | 44,546 | -6.3 |
Scunthorpe Telegraph | 24,384 | -18.3 |
The full list of audience figures for regional publisher online networks is as follows:
Publisher | Daily Average UB | Y-o-ypc |
Kent Online (KM Group) | 132,744 | 25.6 |
Newsquest | 1,575,714 | 24.1 |
Midland News Association | 203,153 | 23.5 |
Johnston Press | 1,189,674 | 22.3 |
Trinity Mirror Regionals | 2,471,236 | 19.4 |
Local World | 1,393,400 | 13.4 |
Absolutely pointless and meaningless statistics. Johnston Press shares are now regarded as junk stock and fell again today to 9p.
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And in two sentences Harry B dismisses the hard work of embattled journalists the length and breadth of the country.
Thanks, mate.
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Johnston Press scored a 1-2 in web growth,fantastic,get out the champagne,put out the flags,the only problem is the shares have plummeted to 9p the reality is its a free service,and figures will always rise when it costs nothing.The powers that be still haven’t latched on to the obvious web sites don’t generate income,if they did and with the fantastic rise in wed site viewing figures why are JP on the brink of going bust.
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Can anybody enlighten me if “Unique Browsers” create any form of revenue streams…………………..?
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You can give away all the news you want on t’internet but getting ads around it to make it pay isnt easy. When will JP realise that local weekly type advertisers dont want to know. They think if it’s on the net then everyone will follow. Maybe ok with National/world news but locals prefer print. If it aint broke dont fix it!! Go Jason with his new werkly. JP …lions being led by donkeys!!!
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DAVE. Glad to help.
You’re toiling away on what you know is a thankless and pointless charade. Nobody is going to pay to read newspapers online and that means all of these hits, likes and UPVs are just ifs, buts and maybes, floating around on a summer breeze.
Have you considered what it is you are trying to achieve and whether it’s working? You obviously haven’t.
It was the same bull that I used to hear more than 15 years ago. Unlike most journalists these days, I told the ‘suits’ they were talking rubbish. I refused to offer more than a ‘token’ web presence until someone explained to me how web traffic was going to cover the cost of lost paper sales. I’m still waiting.
You and your colleagues may be working hard. Sadly, a man trying to dig up a 100-year-old oak tree with a teaspoon, is also working hard. Futile effort but hard graft.
Why not think and look at the facts and figures before trying to defend this nonsense?
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old snapper – yes they do. That was an easy question. Got any others?
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I suppose if the top dogs are telling everyone to keep digging up that oak tree with their teaspoons there’s not a huge amount the grafters can do.
The issue is very clear… Content is touted as being ‘king’ on the web, and indeed it is if you want traffic. But traffic (in truth) only just about wipes it’s face when monetised through display ads.
The elephant in the room is classifieds – there needs to be a realisation that their business is not about content. Content is simply a hook to pull in UBs but those UBs need to then be monetised.
Leadership in this industry needs to understand that their business is not about content; it is about connecting readers with services and retailers, and those connections when correctly monetised through the provision of relevant and PROFITABLE solutions for those service providers and retailers are the only route to long term maintainable profit for the industry.
Johnston Press needs to take a good look at who earns the real money online, and who are their lunch in the first place – indeed, autotrader, rightmove to name but a few.
Bring back the relevance for the local businesses and provide them with a reason to engage. Then there might be some hope!
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For goodness sake..AH a d JP really need to get a grip!! They are in a unique position tl dictate where locsl news goes from here! Digital is nice and clesn and cheap, but as a money making model…well its a complete and utter failure as far as LOCAL weekly news goes . SO. Take back the powet of the press and tell people thst print is king and thats all about it. Forget your big imaginary savings on print snd distribution costs. Bottom line is that DIGITAL DONT WORK.. print has proved itself. Yout greed is blinding you to the tteality!!
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Zenithar. If unique browsers create revenue, how come Johnston Press share prices have fallen from over £14 to less than 10p.
How come companies have had to get rid of hundreds of journalists this year already?
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Zenithar: You appear to have inside info on how super-successful the interweb is for newspaper giants. In which case, could you explain why so many journalists are being made redundant, their offices flogged off and share prices are at rock bottom?
Where is the money going from these fabulous internet income streams? I think we should be told.
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Several ‘local’ newspapers in Northern Ireland this week entered the make-believe world of Newsroom of the Future. Such drivel. Readers were invited to make a splash in Paris (full page); were told how to be nice to their knees; how to avoid sprains and strains; how to face pet emergencies; told about school buses; and lots more irrelevant rubbish. If they were free sheets, the readers would be overcharged! But they cost £1.50. Unsold copies are piling high in newsagents and shares are under 10p, despite the recent x50 move! Well done, ye suits…
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Obviously my question to Zenithar wasn’t as easy as the other one he smugly answered
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Harry – I can’t answer your question to Zenithar, but I believe UBs DO make money. Not enough, however, to keep overbloated dinosaurs like JP afloat in their current form for much longer and not nearly as much as print still does. Nobody has told us how big these revenue streams are, because I think if they did, we’d all die of fright.
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To Harry and ex-JP sub – the answer is quite simple. The web makes money, but it doesn’t make as much money as print. Eventually there will come a time when the web makes more money than print. It is inevitable. But it won’t make as much money as print did in its heyday, unless something radical happens (it might – lots of radical things have happened in the last few years alone).
Should we fight the inevitable by offering a “token” web presence and damaging our brand by being last with the local news? Or should we prepare for the future and try to build a new audience?
It’s going to be painful, and there are going to be job losses, but there will always be a demand for news – and if there is a demand, there is a business opportunity.
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Zenithar, the major news groups seem paralysed by the scale of the task ahead, only able to introduce new ways of working to cut jobs. I am struggling to think of any new innovative initiative to either boost print or online audiences. I’ve long thought that a newspaper website should be a portal to all sorts of interesting content, and by that I don’t mean cat videos and advertising dressed up as news. If you always do what you always did, you’ll always get what you always got. New thinking and ideas are critical. Good luck.
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Zenithar. You say the web makes money. Really? The evidence suggests that it doesn’t cover the costs. That’s why JP shares dropped again to 8.2p. They entire company is worth less than a nice house in Notting Hill.
You say there’ll be job losses. Did you miss the hundreds already gone this year? Every time costs are cut (because there is no money to be made from the web) the quality of the printed product and web offering is damaged.
I’m afraid you’re either delusional or very, very optimistic.
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There’s something on which we can agree, ex-JP.
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Zenithar, thank you for your reply, would you now care to expand on that…..?
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So JP – purveyors of newspapers whose circulations are draining away like water out of the bath -.are boasting of ‘hits’ on their website! The drowning ‘suits’ are grasping at straws. Website news is free. Advertisers are not enthused. The share price – like those circulations – is sinking fast at just over 8p. Stupidity and greed are the reasons. The JP Newsrooms of the Future (with terrible ‘stories’) are the latest manifestation of these insane policies. An unmitigated disaster.
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Zenithar…what planet are you living on? It must be planet clanger along with the soup dragon and Ashley Highfield!! As far as LOCAL news is concerned digital is and always will be a failure. With LOCAL news publishers are wasting their time going digital. Put out a good hyper local product, do the opposite of what JP have done and advertisers and readers will come back. The only thing the net is useful for LOCALLY is promoting what’s in this week’s paper and teasing with breaking news…full story and pictures in Friday’s Gazette.
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JP will collapse in early 2017. It is in the process of collapsing now but the whole ship will fold in on itself Feb/Mar next year. It is broken.
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Yes, Ken of the North. The JP Iceberg of doom (in the form of Digital) is straight ahead for all to see, except that Captain Ashley refuses to recognise it. He’ll give the instruction ‘FULL STEAM AHEAD’ and this version of the Titanic will sink without trace.
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