The Independent passes 40m web browsers for first time in June

The Independent has for the first time passed 40 million average monthly unique browsers, according to the latest report of the Audit Bureau of Circulation (ABC) published today.

The outlet reached 40.1 million browsers in June 2014, an almost 70 per cent increase on the same month the previous year when it recorded 23.6 million browsers.

Christian Broughton, digital editor at The Indy, attributed the increase in traffic to The Independent's integrated newsroom, which came into play last year, as well as an update to the outlet's digital edition for iOS and the launch of its Android mobile app.

"I always doff my cap to the brilliant editorial team on the website," Broughton said, emphasising the "group success" since integration. "They are fantastic and they are just getting better and better at what they do, so everything's kind of sharpening up."

He added that the outlet's coverage of the World Cup had also helped to contribute to higher web traffic in June – which was up 9.6 per cent on May – an event which provided a boost for a number of news outlets last month.

Traffic to The Independent's new i100 platform, launched today, will be included in future reports and audits as the publisher seeks to reach new audiences, Broughton said, boosting figures across the organisation.

Telegraph Media Group saw the largest increase in web traffic, reaching 78.7 million browsers in June, up almost 20 per cent on its figures for the previous month and its highest recorded figure to date.

The Guardian and Mirror Group Nationals reclaimed respective landmark figures of more than 100 million and 50 million monthly browsers after both experiencing a slight dip in traffic during May.

Other notable month-on-month increases included The Express, up 13 per cent to 13.4 million browsers, and one of the only publications to report consistent growth in traffic since it began including figures in ABC's monthly multi-platform report in February 2014.

Meanwhile, traffic to Metro fell slightly to 29.1 million after the outlet reached its highest ever web traffic – 29.3 million browsers – in May.

Mail Online maintained its top position as the highest-traffic site of those audited by ABC, although at 168.1 million monthly unique browsers its figures had fallen slightly (by two per cent) since May.



Additional reporting by Alastair Reid

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