The Sun Online Ranks as the Most Popular U.K. Newspaper Site
3/4 of Visitors to Mail Online Come From Outside the U.K.
London, U.K. May 13, 2009 – Comscore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today released the results of a study examining domestic and worldwide visitation to leading U.K. newspaper sites, based on data from the Comscore World Metrix audience measurement service. In total, 15.9 million people in the U.K. visited a newspaper Web site in March, representing a 43-percent reach of the country’s online population.
U.K. Newspapers Enjoy Healthy Domestic Growth Online
The Sun Online was the most popular online newspaper in the U.K. in March, growing 8 percent versus year ago to 4.6 million visitors. Guardian.co.uk ranked second with 4.3 million visitors, followed by Telegraph.co.uk (3.9 million visitors), the Mail Online (3.5 million visitors) and the Times Online (3 million visitors). The majority of the top ten newspaper sites achieved double-digit growth versus year ago, including Metro.co.uk, which grew 75 percent to rank as the fastest-growing.
Total Online Visitors to a Selection of Leading U.K. Newspaper Titles*Total U.K., Age 15+ - Home & Work Locations**Mar-2009 vs. Mar-2008Source: Comscore World Metrix
Property
Mar-2008
Mar-2009
% Change
Total U.K. Internet Audience
33,761
36,781
9%
Newspapers
14,823
15,937
8%
The Sun Online***
4,268
4,602
GUARDIAN.CO.UK
3,619
4,263
18%
TELEGRAPH.CO.UK
2,754
3,928
43%
Mail Online
2,466
3,516
Times Online
2,600
2,955
14%
INDEPENDENT.CO.UK
1,017
1,623
60%
Mirror Online
1,101
1,591
45%
METRO.CO.UK
488
852
75%
FT.com
817
691
-15%
*Based on a selection of individual online newspaper titles; excludes group newspaper properties.**Excludes traffic from public computers such as Internet cafes or access from mobile phones or PDAs.***Includes traffic to News of the World sites.
U.K. Newspapers Draw International Audiences
While online U.K. newspapers draw substantial domestic audiences, most attract even larger international audiences. Specifically, the Mail Online derived 73 percent of its worldwide audience from outside of the U.K., followed by FT.com (67 percent), and Metro.co.uk (61 percent). Even Thisislondon.co.uk, the Web site of London-focused newspaper the Evening Standard, derived 48 percent of its total traffic from outside of the country.
“Traditional U.K. newspaper brands have proven to be very popular online, both here in the U.K. and around the world,” said Mike Read, SVP and Managing Director, Comscore Europe. “Whether or not these titles choose to switch to subscription-based models, at the possible expense of audience attrition, remains to be seen. However, we can be certain that the online medium has enabled U.K. newspapers to attract substantial incremental readership from other countries – audiences that were not nearly as accessible in the days of print-only publications.”
Total Worldwide Visitors to a Selection of Leading U.K. Newspaper Titles*Total Worldwide, Age 15+ - Home & Work Locations**Mar-2009Source: Comscore World Metrix
Total U.K. Unique Visitors (000)
Total Worldwide Unique Visitors (000)
% of Total Audience from Outside the U.K.
12,814
73%
11,518
10,436
62%
9,901
57%
7,307
3,558
54%
3,287
52%
2,165
61%
FT.COM
2,094
67%
THISISLONDON.CO.UK
596
1,145
48%
Other notable findings from the report include:
About Comscore Comscore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR) is a global leader in measuring the digital world. For more information, please visit www.comscore.com/companyinfo
Ayaan MohamudComscore, Inc.+ 44 (0) 207-099-1775worldpress@comscore.com