ABCe: Newspaper websites' traffic rises amid election drama

All five national newspaper websites that report ABCe figures reported a month-on-month rise in traffic in May, most likely driven by users seeking updates on the aftermath of the general election. Mail Online was the most-visited newspaper website network for the fifth month running, up 1% month on month to 2.39 million average daily browsers and 42.37 million monthly browsers, according to the latest figures from the Audit Bureau of Circulations Electronic published today. Guardian.co.uk, the website network that includes Observer content and MediaGuardian.co.uk, was up 9.4% month on month to 2.01 million average daily browsers, while Telegraph.co.uk recorded just over 1.6 million average daily browsers, up 4% month on month, making it the third most popular UK newspaper website. Mirror Group Digital put in the best month-on-month performance, up nearly 14% to just over 502,000 average daily browsers in May. Independent.co.uk was up more than 9% compared with April to 481,954 average daily browsers. National newspaper websites now use an average of daily visitor numbers as their headline measurement figure as it is felt to be more representative than a monthly user figure. Mail Online Daily average browsers: 2,390,095 Month-on-month change: +1% ; Year-on-year change: 70% Monthly browsers: 42,370,127 Monthly change: +4.6% Guardian.co.uk Daily average browsers: 2,010,341 Month-on-month change: +9.4% ; Year-on-year change: 37.4% Monthly browsers: 35,693,318 Monthly change: +11.8% Telegraph.co.uk Daily average browsers: 1,663,877 Month-on-month change: +5% ; Year-on-year change: +28% Monthly browsers: 32,500,512 Monthly change: +7.5% Independent.co.uk Daily average browsers: 481,954 Month-on-month change: +5.8% ; Year-on-year change: +14.3% Monthly browsers: 10,585,281 Monthly change: +7.2% Mirror Group Digital Daily average browsers: 502,382 Month-on-month change: +13.7%; Year-on-year change: 23% Monthly browsers: 10,723,595 Monthly change: 14.9% • To contact the MediaGuardian news desk email [email protected] or phone 020 3353 3857. For all other inquiries please call the main Guardian switchboard on 020 3353 2000. • If you are writing a comment for publication, please mark clearly "for publication".