Guardian retains top spot among newspaper websites

Guardian.co.uk increased its unique users by 12% month on month, to 23.1 million. It also had the highest number of unique users in the UK at 8.7 million.

In contrast, MailOnline was the worst performing newspaper website in the market, with unique users down 6.6% to 17.4 million. Its number of users in the UK was also among the lowest at 5.2 million.

Meanwhile, Times Online reported a record high of 19.6 miilion unique users, up 92% since August 2007. Of those users, six million were based in the UK. "These are a fantastic set of results," said Anne Spackman, editor-in-chief of Times Online. "The steady rise in our global audience is testament to the power of the Times brand and the strength of our coverage."

The number of unique users at Telegraph.co.uk was up 17.6% month on month, to become only the second newspaper site to break the 20-million mark, with 22 million. This translates to a year on year growth of 125%; six million users came from the UK. Edward Roussel, digital editor at TMG, said: "Our August traffic was stronger than we expected, reaching a record high for global unique users and page views. Our coverage of the Beijing Olympics and the war in Georgia was particularly successful."

The Mirror Group's digital online audience grew 7.6% month on month, recording 5.5 million unique users in August, with 56.7% of those, about three million, coming from the UK.

Mark Hollinshead, managing director of national division at Trinity Mirror, said: "Our month-on-month increase in unique users is testament to the success of our ongoing development of Mirror.co.uk and its successful relaunch at the end of July."

Elsewhere, the Independent's website saw a slight 0.6% rise to 6.6 million unique users. No breakdown of UK users was provided.  

This article was first published on Media Week