The Manchester Evening News has become the first regional newspaper to publish its online traffic alongside its print circulation.

The latest round of Audit Bureau of Circulation figures now includes a ‘Group Product Report’ from MEN Media which details the company’s online traffic.

The report also includes a break down of the paid for and free distribution stats as copies of the MEN are handed out free in the city centre.

Figures the company’s weekly newspapers are also in the Group Product Report.

The Monday to Friday ABC figures for July to December 2007 show sales of 82,445 copies of the MEN with a further 98,455 papers handed out free.

Paid-for sales are down 13.9 per cent year on year.

Its website – manchestereveningnews.co.uk – saw 1,534,981 monthly unique users generating 9,150,815 page impressions during November.

Mark Rix, managing director of MEN Media, said: “I am pleased we are starting 2008 where we want to be.

“We acknowledge that these remain challenging times for our industry and have responded by breaking new ground in how we get the news to people in our area.

“When we took the bold decision to introduce a part free, part paid Manchester Evening News, we were responding to the needs of readers and advertisers and taking control of our future.

“We aren’t frightened of facing the circulation decline of the regional press full on and looking for ways to attract new readers while maintaining our important paid for readers.”