ABC: 4 outlets break monthly records but daily averages stall

Four UK news outlets reported record web traffic for March 2015, according to new figures from the Audit Bureau of Circulation, but daily averages showed no significant growth.

MailOnline's 226 million unique browsers in March meant a return to its record-breaking form having breached the 200 million mark in January.

The Guardian, in reporting 127 million unique browsers in March, closed the gap to under 100 million behind the Mail, while the Telegraph (86 million) and The Independent (54 million) also saw a record month for total unique browsers.

In terms of total monthly unique browsers, every title bounced back from what proved to be a frosty February, although the shorter month traditionally signals a decrease in total monthly figures.


Total monthly web traffic to UK news outlets. Source: ABC. See the full data.

However, of the top five news organisations only The Independent and Telegraph reported an increase in terms of daily average unique browsers, to 2.5 million and 4.1 million respectively, breaking no records in the process.

MailOnline broke the record for average daily unique browsers in February, with 14.7 million, but that figure fell by five per cent in March to just under 14 million.

The Guardian's average daily browsers fell by just under 1 per cent to 7.3 million, while average daily traffic to Mirror Group Nationals fell by 3.5 per cent to 3.8 million.

The Metro reported the biggest increase in average daily unique browsers, by 6 per cent to 1.2 million.


Average daily web traffic to UK news outlets. Source: ABC. See the full data.

Average daily unique browsers are thought to be a more accurate representation of a news outlet's online readership.

"If you go back everyday for a month and you happen to delete your cookies everyday then it thinks it's a new device everyday," Martyn Gates, group executive director of the ABC, told Journalism.co.uk. "So in a month of 31 days it will say 31 unique browsers."

This "known issue" led to the ABC requiring publishers to report average daily unique browsers from 2010, to lessen the possibility of duplicates as well as the effect month length can have on reported totals.

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