Traffic to Evening Standard website up 20% in May

Online traffic for the London Evening Standard rose by 20.1 per cent in May, according to figures released today by the Audit Bureau of Circulation.

Visitor numbers to the website of the freely distributed commuter title rose to 4.7 million, compared to 3.9 million in April, the biggest month-on-month percentage increase among audited national UK newspapers in May.

The increase represents a recovery for the Standard, after monthly figures had fallen from 4.2 million in April, as it also recorded the biggest increase in terms of daily visitors, breaking the 200,000 mark with an increase of 13.47 per cent.

The Independent experienced the second largest rise in traffic, with a month-on-month increase of 9.7 per cent, up to 26.6 million, and a daily increase of 6.4 per cent.

The Mail Online and the website for The Sun saw monthly visitors increase by 7.99 per cent and 7.87 per cent respectively.

Elsewhere, online traffic to Mirror Group Digital increased by 4.46 per cent month-on-month, with a 5.5 per cent increase in daily traffic, while guardian.co.uk recorded a 1.18 per cent increase in monthly traffic while daily visitor numbers fell by 2.2 per cent.

The Guardian's total of 82.9 monthly digital visitors represented another new record in digital traffic for the site.

"This is the third month in a row we’ve seen record digital traffic," said David Pemsel, chief commercial officer at Guardian News & Media, "the fourth month in a row for our mobile site, and these figures are proof that our ambitious commercial and digital strategies are working."

The Metro, which had previously seen its traffic increase by almost a third after launching a new, responsive website, had the lowest increase in monthly traffic at 0.09 per cent.

The Telegraph was the only news organisation to record a drop in monthly visitors in May, as traffic fell by 3.2 per cent from almost 59 million to 57 million and daily visitors also down, by 6 per cent.

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