ABCes: News International pulls out, Mail Online stays ahead

News International withdrew all its audited web traffic figures for March 2010 as the Times and Sunday Times gear up to put their content behind a paywall in June . Mail Online remained the most visited UK newspaper website in March, according to the latest figures from the Audit Bureau of Circulations Electronic published today. The Mail Online website network had 2.2 million average daily browsers during March, followed by Guardian.co.uk with 1.8 million and Telegraph.co.uk with 1.6 million. Times Online will relaunch next month and introduce a paywall in June . The Sunday Times has up to now appeared on the web as part of Times Online, but the paper will be getting its own website as part of the changes. Users will be charged £1 for a day's access and £2 for a week's subscription to both websites. Content from Sun Online – which includes News of the World material at the moment – will go behind a paywall at a later date. The step of withdrawing traffic figures could mark a new more commercially secretive phase in web publishing as sites toy with sacrificing a large but non-paying global audience for a smaller, fee-paying one. All the national newspaper websites saw little change in average daily browser numbers from February to March, though monthly unique figures rose between 4% and 9% across the board. 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. Next month's figures are expected to soar with interest in the UK general election. Mail Online Daily average browsers: 2,246,746 Month on month change: -0.83% Month on year change: +62.43% Monthly browsers: 39,170,732 Monthly change: +8.2% Yearly change: +64.8% 14,702,979 UK monthly browsers ( 37.5% of total) Guardian.co.uk Daily average browsers: 1,852,293 Monthly change: -0.92% Yearly change: +40.08% 33,371,947 monthly browsers Monthly change: +7.75% Yearly change: +27.19% 14,189,196 UK monthly browsers ( 42.5% of total) Telegraph.co.uk Daily average browsers: 1,557,118 Monthly change: +0.59% Yearly change: +11.37% Monthly browsers: 30,258,382 Monthly change: +8.54% Yearly change: +9.2% 10,934,887 UK monthly browsers ( 36.1% of total) Independent.co.uk Daily average browsers: 445,588 Monthly change: -4.25% Yearly change: +1.16% Monthly browsers: 9,992,367 Monthly change: +4.69% Yearly change: -0.42% 4,506,705 UK monthly browsers ( 45.1% of total) Mirror Group Digital Daily average browsers: 467,711 Monthly change: -0.37% Yearly change: +35.06% Monthly browsers: 10,062,032 Monthly change: +9.57% Yearly change: +40.96% 5,644,034 UK monthly browsers ( 56.1% of total) • 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".