ABCe: Mail Online tops 3m daily users

Mail Online was the only UK national newspaper website to defy a dip in online audience in December, topping 3 million daily users for the first time in the process. The Daily Mail's network of websites recorded 3,044,961 average daily users during December, up 3.58% from November, according to the latest figures from the Audit Bureau of Circulations Electronic published today. Despite a boost in traffic from WikiLeaks US embassy cables content in the first half of December, the theguardian.com network saw a slight overall fall for the month. The Guardian News & Media website network recorded 2,234,360 average daily users, down 3.9% from November. However, this was up by just over 18% compared with December 2009. Its UK audience accounted for 35% of monthly users. UK traffic accounted for 35% of Mail Online's total monthly audience, with one source indicating that US growth was a key driver of traffic for the site. Mail Online already has an office in LA with three editorial and advertising staff, and is in the process of opening a New York office three times that size. "We're also starting to reach the kind of scale where growth is self-perpetuating," said the Mail Online insider. "There's content that is universally interesting." Part of Mail Online's successful strategy has been its front-page sidebar with links to popular celebrity stories. The source described that as a navigation tool that takes the effort out of searching for stories. "Other sites give that job back to the user." Telegraph.co.uk's traffic fell 8.15% from November to 1,583,322 average daily users, with 33% of its audience in the UK. All UK national newspaper sites that report monthly ABCe figures recorded year-on-year growth, with the Mail Online seeing a far bigger increase of 60.32% from December 2009. News International's titles the Sun, News of the World, Times and Sunday Times stopped reporting monthly ABCe figure last year before the publisher began introducing paywalls for online content. Mail Online Daily average browsers: 3,044,961 Month-on-month change: +3.58% Year-on-year change: +60.32% Monthly browsers: 53,943,420 Monthly change: +4.88% theguardian.com Daily average browsers: 2,234,360 Month-on-month change: -3.9% Year-on-year change: +18.32% Monthly browsers: 39,067,825 Monthly change: -4.26% Telegraph.co.uk Daily average browsers: 1,583,322 Month-on-month change: -8.17% Year-on-year change: +3.16% Monthly browsers: 31,087,385 Monthly change: -5.50% Independent.co.uk Daily average browsers: 504,507 Month-on-month change: -9.90% Year-on-year change: +32.81% Monthly browsers: 11,041,306 Monthly change: -3.01% Mirror Group Digital Daily average browsers: 503,959 Month-on-month change: -5.66% Year-on-year change: +12.33% Monthly browsers: 11,099,976 Monthly change: -3.01% • 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".