Top 50 UK news websites: The Independent leapfrogs Mirror and Guardian into fourth place

Posted by Admin April 29, 2024 Tech

The homepage for the official website of The Independent, the British online newspaper. Picture: Shutterstock

The Independent’s audience was up 8% month-on-month in March, leading to it jumping from sixth to fourth place in Press Gazette’s latest monthly ranking.

The Independent’s monthly audience was up to 21 million – leading to it leapfrogging the Mirror (20.7 million) and The Guardian (20.8 million) to reach fourth place for the first time since Press Gazette started using Ipsos iris data for this ranking.

The Mirror fell from fourth to sixth place, with a month-on-month drop of 3% compared to The Guardian’s 2% growth.

The Independent’s growth was the joint-highest in the top ten with The Telegraph in ninth place, which was also up 8% month-on-month to 15.5 million.

Mail Online (audience of 22.7 million, up 6%) and Metro (14.3 million, up 5%) also saw audiences that were at least 5% bigger than in February. ITV (audience of 14 million) and the Mirror saw the biggest falls, at 3% each.

Year-on-year, the UK’s biggest newsbrands saw a much slower month with all but The Independent (up 8% year-on-year) seeing smaller audiences in March 2024 compared with the same month in 2023.

ITV (down 18% year-on-year), Mirror (down 17%), Metro (down 15%), The Sun (audience of 23.7 million, down 15%) and The Guardian (down 14%) all saw-double digit drops.

Among the wider top 50, Gloucestershire Live, ranked 39th, more than doubled its audience year-on-year reaching 3.9 million people – up 139% compared to March 2023.

It was followed by Forbes (5.3 million, up 44% year-on-year) and Canadian-based entertainment news site Screenrant (3.9 million, up 38%).

Reach regional sites, Bristol Live (audience of 4.9 million, up 8%) and Birmingham Live (11 million, up 7%) saw the next biggest year-on-year growth.

We have not included GB News in the above chart. Its audience was up 3,515% year-on-year however, this is due in part to the fact that GB News launched a new dotcom URL last year meaning that not all growth will be organic.

Compared to February, women’s lifestyle publisher Cosmopolitan saw the largest boost to its audience – up 42% month-on-month to 3.8 million.

It was followed by Yorkshire Live (4.9 million, up 33%) and CNN (3.5 million, up 31%). Yorkshire Live (also known as Examiner Live) was one of five Reach websites, three of which are regional brands, in the fastest-growing sites month-month, along with OK (5.2 million, up 23% month-on-month), Gloucestershire Live (up 15%), Daily Express (13.2 million, up 13%) and Manchester Evening News (11 million, up 13%).

The BBC remained top of the table for overall audience (38 million), although Ipsos’ data measures the total unduplicated number of people who used a brand’s websites and apps in a given month and includes all traffic, not necessarily just news. Reach and minutes for brands such as the BBC and ITV, which have a strong entertainment offering in addition to news content, will therefore be higher.

The Sun was again the second largest newsbrand and the top commercial name (23.7 million), followed by Mail Online.

Audiences also spent most time with the BBC (9.4 billion minutes), followed by Mail Online (1.6 billion minutes) and The Guardian (1 billion minutes).

The Guardian overtook ITV (893 million minutes) which fell into fourth place. Total time spent with The Guardian was up 29% year-on-year and 5% month-on-month. ITV in contrast recorded a 25% fall compared to February.

Paywalled brands again punched above their weight on time spent with their content compared to the size of their total reach with The Telegraph coming fifth for time spent (719 minutes) compared to eighth for reach.

The Times and Sunday Times, which ranked 13th for audience, came in sixth for total time spent with its digital content (633.2 million minutes), up one place from February, while The New York Times, ranked 23rd for audience reach, came in eighth for minutes spent (371.5 million).

To create this top-50 list, Press Gazette used Ipsos’ ranking of the top online brand groups and selected the 50 biggest that Press Gazette considers to be based in journalistic content. Our list covers both consumer and industry (B2B) media. You can consult our list of 100 brands and read more about our criteria here.

Brands such as Apple and Google, while well-known names in news, are excluded from our list given the wide reach of their non-news content. Google News and Apple News are not reported by Ipsos as separate entities in brand level data.

Ipsos iris replaced Comscore as the industry-recognised standard in 2021. Ipsos iris data is partly derived from a panel of 10,000 people aged 15 and over that is designed to be nationally representative. The participants have meters installed across 25,000 personal devices to passively measure website and app usage.

This is combined with data from participating websites that are tagged so all devices visiting the site can be identified and logged.

February 2024

None of the ten biggest news websites in the UK saw a bigger audience in February than in January, according to Press Gazette’s latest monthly ranking.

ITV saw the biggest fall among the top sites by audience size, down 7% compared to January (14.4 million) according to data from Ipsos iris. It was followed by Mail Online (audience of 21.4 million), Sky News (17.7 million) and the Mirror (21.3 million), which each saw a 6% month-on-month fall in audience.

This trend was in contrast to January, when all but three of the top ten newsbrands grew their audiences month-on-month.

Year-on-year the picture was the same for the top ten brands with each recording declines compared to last February. Seven saw double-digit drops including Metro (with 13.6 million unique visitors in February) seeing the largest year-on-year fall at 15%. Sky News, the Guardian (audience of 20 million) and the BBC (37.6 million) saw falls of less than 10%.

Among the wider top 50, a Reach regional newsbrand recorded the largest month-on-month growth in audience for the second month in a row. Audience to Gloucestershire Live was up 20% in February to 3.4 million, echoing Bristol Live’s gain in January, and leading to it re-enter the top 50 in 37th place. LBC (audience of 4.3 million) shared first spot with Gloucestershire Live, also up 20% month-on-month.

They were followed by Irish Mirror (audience of 2.7 million, up 16% month-on-month) and another Reach brand, Yorkshire Live (3.7 million, up 13%).

Two newsbrands just outside of the top ten, The Evening Standard (ranked 15 with an audience of 10.9 million, up 9% month-on-month) and The Times and Sunday Times (rank 12, 12.1 million, up 5%), also grew monthly in February.

Year-on-year, relative newcomer GB News, which launched a dotcom url last year, saw the fastest growth in the top 50. Audience to the newsbrand was up 167% compared to February 2023 at 9 million people. It was followed by Gloucestershire Live (up 130% year-on-year) and People (2.9 million, up 59%).

The BBC remained top of the table for overall audience, although Ipsos’ data measures the total unduplicated number of people who used a brand’s websites and apps in a given month and includes all traffic, not necessarily just news. Reach and minutes for brands such as the BBC and ITV, which have a strong entertainment offering in addition to news content, will therefore be higher.

The Sun remained the second largest newsbrand and the top commercial name (23.4 million), followed by Mail Online (21.4 million), the Mirror (21.3 million), and The Guardian (20 million) in an order unchanged from last month.

Audiences also spent most time with the BBC (10.7 billion minutes), followed by Mail Online (1.6 billion minutes), and ITV (1.2 billion minutes), with BBC and Mail Online both seeing falls of 11% and 12% respectively in time spent with their content compared to January.

Paywalled brands again punched above their weight on time spent with their content compared to the size of their total reach. The Times and Sunday Times, which ranked 12th for audience, came in seventh for total time spent with its digital content (572.6 million minutes), while The New York Times, ranked 21st for audience reach, came in ninth for minutes spent (323.6 million).

January 2024

Money Saving Expert and The Telegraph saw month-on-month double-digit growth of their audiences in January, according to Press Gazette’s latest monthly ranking.

Martin Lewis’ consumer newsbrand reached an audience of 14.2 million in January, up 20% compared to December, while audience at the Telegraph was up 10% to 15.2 million.

They were among seven of the top ten newsbrands by audience size that saw more visitors in January compared to December, according to data from Ipsos iris. Sky News (18.8 million visitors, up 6% month-on-month) saw the third fastest-growth.

Mail Online (22.8 million visitors) and The Sun (24.3 million) were the only two top ten newsbrands to see monthly falls in traffic. Traffic to Mail Online’s websites and apps was down slightly by 2%, while down by 1% for The Sun.

Compared to January 2023, all of the ten biggest newsbrands except Sky News saw their audiences fall year-on-year.

The Mirror (22.6 million people, down 11%) and The Telegraph (down 10%) recorded the largest drops. Sky News saw a slightly year-on-year audience boost (up 2%) while the BBC’s audience was unchanged.

Among the wider top 50, Reach’s Bristol Live saw the biggest monthly gain in audience (5.3 million people, up 29%), followed by health newsbrand Web MD (4.7 million, up 27%) and the Financial Times (3.7 million, up 24%).

The BBC remained top of the table for overall audience with 38 million unique visitors in January, although Ipsos’ data measures the total unduplicated number of people who used a brand’s websites and apps in a given month and includes all traffic, not necessarily just news. Reach and minutes for brands such as the BBC and ITV, which have a strong entertainment offering in addition to news content, will therefore be higher.

The Sun remained the second largest newsbrand and the top commercial name, followed closely by Mail Online, the Mirror, and The Guardian (21.2 million).

The BBC was also top for total time spent with its website and apps in January (10.9 billion minutes), followed by Mail Online (1.8 billion minutes), and ITV (1.2 billion).

Despite coming in 25th place for reach (7.3 million people), The New York Times made the top ten for time spent, coming in ninth position as its audience spent 338.3 million minutes with its paywalled content during the month.

Year-on-year once again GB News, which launched a new .com URL in March last year, saw the biggest growth with an audience of 8.7 million, up 195% compared to January. While not all growth will be organic, the publisher has invested in ramping up its digital presence.

December 2023

The Sun increased its lead over Mail Online in December, growing its audience by 5% month-on-month while Mail Online’s audience fell by 1% according to Press Gazette’s latest monthly ranking.

The Sun reached an audience of 24.7 million in December, 1.5 million more than the 23.2 million people reached by Mail Online, according to data from Ipsos iris. In November the gap between the newsbrands was 100,000 people.

Between November and December Sky News also saw a jump of 5%, reaching an audience of 17.8 million.

At the other end of the chart, The Independent saw the biggest month-on-month drop of 12% down to 19.2 million, although it continued to have a bigger audience than Sky News.

Despite growing month-on-month, The Sun suffered a double-digit fall of 10% year-on-year.

All top ten newsbrands similarly saw falls in audience compared to December 2022 although The Guardian (20.8 million, down 1%), BBC (37.9 million, down 2%), Sky News (17.8 million, down 5%) and Mail Online (down 5%) saw smaller drops.

Audiences spent most time with the BBC (9.7 billion minutes), followed by Mail Online (1.6 billion minutes). Time spent with Mail Online was up 3% compared to November but down 20% compared to December 2022.

Despite coming in second place for audience reach, The Sun ranked eighth for time spent (359.6 million minutes), up 7% month-on-month but down more than a third (35%) compared to the same month last year.

Among the overall top 50, the Irish Mirror (audience of 3.3 million, rank 43) saw the biggest change compared to November as its audience was up 86%, followed by Unilad (4.5 million, up 21%) and Nottinghamshire Live (3 million, up 17%).

Year-on-year once again GB News, which launched a new .com URL in March last year, saw the biggest growth with an audience of 8.2 million, up 394% compared to last November. While not all growth will be organic, the publisher has invested in its ramping up its digital presence.

The BBC was again the UK’s biggest newsbrand by audience size, reaching 76% of the UK online population aged over 15), while The Sun was second and Mail Online third.

It should be noted that Ipsos’ data measures the total unduplicated number of people who used a brand’s websites and apps in a given month and includes all traffic, not necessarily just news. Reach and minutes for brands such as the BBC and ITV, which have a strong entertainment offering in addition to news content, will therefore be higher.

The best ranked regional newsbrand, the Manchester Evening News, fell further down the table (audience of 11.7 million, rank 14) having dropped out of the top ten earlier this year.

November 2023

The Independent and Money Saving Expert were the only top ten newsbrands in the UK to buck the trend by growing year-on-year in November, according to Press Gazette’s latest monthly ranking.

Visits to ITV were up 20% year-on-year as the brand reached an audience of 15.5 million people, while visits to the Daily Mail were up 17% to 24.9 million, according to data from Ipsos iris.

Reach for The Independent was up 2% year-on-year as the brand reached a UK audience of 21.8 million people. Consumer advice newsbrand Money Saving Expert was meanwhile up 17% to 24.9 million as it re-entered the top ten in tenth place, according to data from Ipsos iris.

The Telegraph (13.8 million), ranked ten in October, fell outside the top ten to eleventh place in November.

The remainder of the top ten biggest newsbrands by number of visits saw audiences fall year-on-year. The Sun saw the largest fall (audience of 23.5 million, down 17% year-on-year), followed by ITV (14.9 million, down 16%), the Metro (14.4 million, down 14%) and the Mirror (22 million, down 14%).

Month-on-month changes were less sharp amongst this group of top ten sites. The Sun’s audience month-on-month remained mostly unchanged, while audience to the Mirror was down 4% compared to October, while audience to the Metro was down 2%.

Among the whole top 50, GB News, which switched to a new .com URL earlier this year, saw the largest audience growth by far, with audience up 472% year-on-year to 8 million. This represents the eighth month in a row for which GB News has been the fastest-growing newsbrand in the UK top 50, being a relatively new website.

Second-fastest growing were two Reach newsbrands – Gloucestershire Live (3.1 million, up 161% year-on-year) and Bristol Live (5.2 million, up 132% year-on-year). Earlier this year, Reach closed 13 of its new regional sites due to cutbacks at the publisher.

The BBC was again the UK’s biggest newsbrand by audience size (38.3 million visitors, reaching 77% of the UK online population aged over 15), while the Sun narrowly beat Mail Online (23.4 million) to come in second place given Mail Online’s larger month-on-month audience fall in November (down 6.1%). The Sun has historically been in second place behind the BBC, although Mail Online was ahead of the News UK brand in May, June, August, September and October.

Manchester Evening News, which fell out of the top ten earlier this year, ranked two places higher than in October, coming in thirteenth (audience of 12 million, down 39% year-on-year), swapping positions with Birmingham Live (audience of 12.5 million, rank fourteen).

Of the ten sites with the biggest year-on-year falls, eight were owned by Reach. They included My London (audience of 2.8 million, down 60% year-on-year), Nottinghamshire Live (2.6 million, down 56%), and In Your Area (3.2 million, down 43%). Several Reach newsbrands were among those with the biggest year-on-year falls in October as well.

The BBC was once again at the top of the table for most time spent with its content (9.5 billion minutes in November), followed by Mail Online (1.5 billion minutes) and The Guardian (1.1 billion minutes). All three saw slight month-on-month falls with time spent with their content.

The BBC and Mail Online also ranked first and second for page views, with the BBC reaching 3.1 billion page views and Mail Online 517.2 million.

October 2023

ITV and Mail Online were the fastest-growing top ten newsbrands by audience size in October, according to Press Gazette’s latest monthly ranking.

Among the ten biggest newsbrands, The Independent (audience of 21 million, up 8% year-on-year), The Guardian (22 million, up 2%) and the BBC (38.3 million, up 1%) also grew last month.

In September, ITV was the only top ten newsbrand by audience size to see a year-on-year audience boost. It is possible that the wider growth seen last month might be linked to an increase in interest in the news given the Israel-Hamas conflict began on 7 October.

However the remaining five top ten biggest newsbrands saw audience declines with The Telegraph (13.8 million, down 24%) and The Sun (23.6 million, down 18%) recording the largest falls.

Among the whole top 50, GB News, which switched to a new .com URL earlier this year, saw the largest audience growth by far, with audience up 758% year-on-year to 6 million. This represents the seventh month in a row for which GB News has been the fastest-growing newsbrand in the UK top 50. While the additional URL means that not all growth will be organic, the brand nevertheless is seeing a large growth in its online audience.

Second fastest growing for the second month in a row was youth-focused brand Unilad, up 245% year-on-year to 3.8 million.

Reach’s Bristol Live was third-fastest growing with audience up 46% to 4.7 million, knocking last month’s third-fastest growing newsbrand, Global’s LBC into fourth place (3.6 million people, up 36% year-on-year).

The BBC was again the UK’s biggest newsbrand by audience size (38.3 million visitors, reaching 77% of the UK online population aged over 15), while Mail Online was once again in second place ahead of The Sun in third. The Sun has historically been in second place behind the BBC, although Mail Online was also ahead of the News UK brand in May, June, August and September.

ITV came in eighth place. The broadcaster had lost its top ranking to Money Saving Expert for one month exceptionally in August, but as of September has regained its top ten ranking. Money Saving Expert was ranked eleventh in October.

Manchester Evening News continued to slip down the table after dropping out of the top ten earlier this year. It was ranked fifteenth in October (audience of 11.9 million, down 33% year-on-year). MEN is no longer the largest regional newsbrand in our ranking, as Birmingham Live was ranked thirteenth (audience of 12.5 million).

Liverpool Echo (7.8 million, down 40%), Chronicle Live (5.5 million, down 39%) and My London (2.9 million, down 48%) – all Reach newsbrands – saw the biggest year-on-year falls in the top 50.

The BBC was once again at the top of the table for most time spent with its content (9.7 billion minutes in October), followed by Mail Online (1.7 billion minutes) and The Guardian (1.2 billion minutes).

The BBC and Mail Online also ranked first and second for page views, with the BBC reaching 3.4 billion page views and Mail Online 559.9 million.

This is combined with data from participating websites that are tagged so all devices visiting the site can be identified and logged.

September 2023

GB News was the fastest-growing news website in the UK for the sixth consecutive month, according to Press Gazette’s monthly ranking.

Visits to gbnews.com were up 650% year-on-year as the brand reached an audience of 6.2 million people in September – although its audience was down from August’s total of 6.6 million.

GB News switched to a new .com URL earlier this year. While the additional URL means that not all growth will be organic, the brand nevertheless is seeing a large growth in its online audience.

It was followed by youth-focused brand Unilad, sister brand to Ladbible. Unilad.com’s audience was up 335% year-on-year to 3.2 million.

Third fastest-growing was Global’s speech radio station LBC (up 87% year-on-year to 4.2 million). In the latest RAJAR results, published on Thursday, LBC also grew its radio listenership slightly in the third quarter of the year, with London listenership up 2% and its UK-wide audience up by 1%.

Bristol Live (4.7 million people, up 41%), Screenrant (3 million, up 32%), Radio Times (7.3 million, up 29%), Forbes (3.5 million, up 11%) and ITV (14.8 million, up 5%) were the remaining five brands that saw any year-on-year growth in September.

ITV was the only top ten newsbrand by audience size to see a year-on-year audience boost in another slow month for the UK’s biggest newsbrands. Among the top ten, Metro (14.6 million, down 26% year-on-year) and The Telegraph (13.5 million, down 27%) saw the biggest drops, each shedding more than a quarter of their audiences.

The third-largest newsbrand in the top 50 by audience, The Sun, also saw a large drop (audience of 22.8 million, down 19%).

Mail Online and BBC fared better, seeing year-on-drops in the low single digits. Audience to Mail Online was down 2% year-on-year, while visitors to the BBC were down 3%.

The BBC was again the UK’s biggest newsbrand by audience size (37.7 million visitors), while Mail Online retained its second place spot having overtaken The Sun in August to become the UK’s largest commercial newsbrand in our ranking (23.9 million visitors). The Sun has historically been in second place behind the BBC, although Mail Online was also ahead of the News UK brand in May and June.

Money Saving Expert, the consumer news website founded by Martin Lewis, had entered the top ten in August but fell back to eleventh place (13.2 million) in September, while ITV re-entered the top ten in eighth position.

Manchester Evening News, which dropped out of the top ten earlier this year, held on to fourteenth place (audience of 11 million), although it lost more than a quarter of its audience (28%) compared to last September.

Cosmopolitan (audience of 2.7 million, down 56% year-on-year), the i (8.2 million, down 47%) and Hello (8.4 million, down 44%) saw the biggest annual audience falls.

There was no change in the ranking for engagement, with the BBC at the top of the table again for most time spent with its content (9.6 billion minutes in September). It was followed by Mail Online (1.7 billion minutes) and The Guardian (1 billion minutes) in a top three unchanged from August.

The BBC and Mail Online also ranked one and two for page views with the BBC reaching 3.3 billion page views and Mail Online 529.9 million. The Sun, while only ranking eighth for time spent, was third for page views (260.5 million), just beating the Guardian (252.3 million).

August 2023

August marked another slow month for growth among the UK’s top ten newsbrands, according to Press Gazette’s monthly ranking.

Six of the biggest newsbrands by audience size saw a smaller audience in August compared to the same month last year, according to data from Ipsos iris.

However The Guardian’s (rank six) audience was up 2% year-on-year to 21.6 million, while The Independent (rank four) was up 1% to 21.6 million. The BBC and Sky News saw no year-on-year change in audience.

Among the top ten newsbrands by audience size, Metro saw the biggest fall in audience for the second month in a row. The number of visitors to the DMGT-owned brand was down 26% year-on-year to 14.5 million, echoing a similar fall (28%) last month.

The Sun (down 17%), Mirror (down 13%) and The Telegraph (down 13%) also saw double-digit falls in the number of people accessing their websites and apps.

Public broadcaster the BBC remained at the top of the table for audience size (37.8 million visitors), however Mail Online overtook The Sun to become the UK’s biggest commercial newsbrand in our ranking. The Sun has historically been in second place behind the BBC, although Mail Online was also ahead of the News UK brand in May and June.

It should be noted that Ipsos’ data measures the total unduplicated number of people who used a brand’s websites and apps in a given month and includes all traffic, not necessarily just news. Reach and minutes for brands such as the BBC and ITV which have a strong entertainment offering in addition to news content will therefore be higher.

Among the top 50 as a whole, fastest-growing was GB News (audience of 6.6 million, up 564% year-on-year), making it the fastest-growing newsbrand in the top 50 every month since April when Ipsos began tracking its new .com URL. While the additional URL means that not all growth will be organic the brand has nevertheless seen a huge surge in its online audience.

It was followed by Global’s speech radio station LBC (up 115% year-on-year to 5.5 million). LBC has recently stepped up its investment in on-air talent, hiring Natasha Clark from The Sun as political editor while Emily Maitlis and Jon Sopel joined parent company Global last year from the BBC. Third was Reach’s Bristol Live (3.8 million, up 112%).

Manchester Evening News, which dropped out of the top ten earlier this year, was the best-ranked regional news brand in fourteenth place (11.8 million, down 27% year-on-year).

Youth publisher Ladbible saw the biggest year-on-year audience fall in the top 50 (down 53%, audience of 4.3 million).

Looking at engagement, audiences spent most time with the BBC’s content (10 billion minutes), followed by Mail Online (1.8 billion minutes) and The Guardian (1.1 billion minutes).

Despite ranking third for reach, the Sun ranked seventh for time spent with its content (453.4 million minutes).

Mail Online also scored well on time per user, with audiences spending an average of 76 minutes with its content, second only to the BBC (264 minutes).

This is combined with data from participating websites that are tagged so all devices visiting the site can be identified and logged.

July 2023

All but one of the UK’s ten biggest news websites saw a year-on-year fall in traffic in July, according to Press Gazette’s monthly top 50 ranking.

Among the top ten newsbrands by audience size, Metro saw the biggest fall as its audience declined by 28% year-on-year to 14.2 million, according to Ipsos iris.

The Telegraph (13.8 million visitors, down 17%) and The Sun (24.3 million, down 13%) also saw double-digit falls in the UK audience to their websites and apps.

ITV, which has seen regular year-on-year growth following the launch of its streaming service ITVX at the end of 2022, also saw its audience fall (15.1 million, down 4%).

The only top ten name to buck the trend was The Guardian whose audience rose by 1% to 20.8 million.

It follows a slow June for most of the UK’s household news names when only four top ten brands recorded year-on-year audience growth.

While the BBC remained at the top of the table for audience size (37.9 million visitors), The Sun overtook Mail Online to resume its place as the UK’s second biggest newsbrand in our ranking, ending Mail Online’s run of being in second place in May and June.

It should be noted that Ipsos’ data measures the total unduplicated number of people who used a brand’s websites and apps in a given month and includes all traffic, not necessarily just news. Reach and minutes for brands such as the BBC and ITV which have a strong entertainment offering in addition to news content will therefore be higher.

There were further changes near the top of the table compared to June, as The Telegraph dropped from ninth to tenth place and Money Saving Expert (audience of 13.4 million) fell from tenth to eleventh. Metro climbed from eleventh to ninth.

Among the top 50 as a whole, fastest-growing was GB News (audience of 6.6 million, up 545% year-on-year), making it the fastest-growing newsbrand in the top 50 every month since April when Ipsos began tracking its new .com URL. While the additional URL means that not all growth will be organic the brand has nevertheless seen a huge surge in its online audience.

It was followed by Global-owned speech radio brand LBC, whose audience was up 109% year-on-year to 6.1 million, while third was Reach’s Yorkshire Live (4.7 million, up 23%). LBC has made a series of high-profile hires, with The Sun’s chief political correspondent Natasha Clark joining as its political editor this summer, while former BBC journalists Emily Maitlis and Jon Sopel joined parent company Global last year to front podcast The News Agents.

Yorkshire Live was also the only Reach regional newsbrand in the top 50 to not see a year-on-year audience decline in July. My London (audience of 3 million, down 51%) and Nottinghamshire Live (3.6 million, down 38%) recorded the largest falls among this group.

Healthline Media, the American publisher of Medical News Today, was again the best-ranked non-UK brand (9.9 million visitors, rank 17) beating The New York Times (7 million, rank 24).

Looking at engagement, audiences spent most time with the BBC’s content (10.3 billion minutes). Despite falling to third place for reach, Mail Online remained second for engagement (1.9 billion minutes).

It was followed by three brands that all recorded strong year-on-growth in time spent. Total minutes were up 22% year-on-year at ITV (1.2 billion minutes), 30% at The Guardian (1.1 billion minutes) and 27% at Sky News (693.5 million minutes), despite the two broadcasters having a smaller audience than in July last year.

The Sun, while ranking second for reach, was seventh for engagement (469.4 million minutes).

June 2023

Mail Online was the fastest-growing top ten newsbrand in the UK in June, according to Press Gazette’s monthly top-50 ranking.

There were 24.5 million visitors to Mail Online’s website and apps in June, an increase of 4% year-on-year. June was, however, a slow month for the UK’s biggest news names as Mail Online was one of only four top ten brands to record growth.

The DMGT-owned brand was followed by Sky News (18.4 million, up 3% year-on-year), ITV (15.5 million, up 3%) and The Guardian (20.5 million, up 1%). ITV’s growth this month was slower than recent months as the broadcaster has seen regular double-digit growth following the launch of ITVX at the end of 2022.

The remainder of the top ten saw fewer visitors in June, with The Sun (audience of 24.3 million) recording the largest fall at 13%.

Among the top 50 as a whole, fastest-growing was GB News (6.7 million, up 643%). The broadcaster switched to a .com URL earlier this year which Ipsos began tracking in April, meaning that not all growth will be organic, but the brand has nevertheless seen a huge surge in its online audience. Digital chief Geoff Marsh recently told Press Gazette that GB News intends to become one of the UK’s biggest news websites.

Second-fastest growing was Global-owned talk radio brand LBC, whose audience was up 128% year-on-year (4.8 million) while third was Reuters News (4.7 million, up 23%) which remains free despite paywall plans announced in 2021 and revived earlier this year.

The BBC remains the UK’s biggest newsbrand by audience size. The corporation’s website and apps reached 37.7 million people in June and it was the only newsbrand to reach over half of the UK online population aged over 15 with a 75% reach.

It was followed by Mail Online (reach of 49%), The Sun (24.3 million people, 48% reach), the Mirror (22.9 million, 46% reach) and The Independent (audience of 21.1 million, 42% reach), in a top five unchanged from May.

Manchester Evening News (10.4 million people, rank 14) was again the best-placed regional newsbrand, although it saw a large fall in audience compared to last June (down 33%).

Healthline Media, the American publisher of Medical News Today, was the best-ranked non-UK brand (9.8 million visitors, rank 15) beating The New York Times (6.9 million, rank 24).

In addition to reach, the BBC led on engagement, with audiences spending 9.5 billion minutes with the brand in June.

Second placed was Mail Online (2 billion minutes) while in third place was The Guardian (1.1 billion minutes). The Guardian recorded another strong month for year-on-year growth in time spent with its sites and apps (up 42% in June and 38% in May).

Ipsos’ data measures the total unduplicated number of people who use a brand’s websites and apps, meaning not all content will be news content, which may increase the audience and time spent with brands such as ITV and BBC who also have a large non-news offering.

May 2023

GB News was the fastest-growing newsbrand in the UK in May, according to Press Gazette’s monthly top-50 ranking.

The audience for the GB News website was up 353% year-on-year to reach 7.2 million, according to data from Ipsos iris.

The broadcaster’s digital chief Geoff Marsh, who joined GB News from the Express last year, recently told Press Gazette that it has a “very ambitious plan” to take on the UK’s biggest news websites. (GB News adopted a dotcom URL earlier this year which Ipsos began tracking in April, therefore not all growth will be organic).

GB News was followed by Timeout which has also had a recent run of growth after going digital-only in 2022. Unique visitors to the listing and culture title were up 39% year-on-year to 4.3 million.

Among the ten biggest sites in May by audience size, ITV was the fastest-growing for the fourth month in a row with audience up 20% year-on-year to reach 14.7 million people. ITV, which launched its streaming service ITVX at the end of 2022, saw similar growth last month with its year-on-year audience growing 25% in March.

ITV was the fastest-growing large newsbrand by a big margin. Second and third fastest-growing Mail Online and Sky News grew 3% year-on-year (audience of 25.2 million and 17.9 million respectively).

Of the ten biggest sites, Metro saw the biggest fall. its audience in May was down 23% year-on-year to 13.8 million, echoing last month’s double-digit fall for the DMGT-owned brand. The Mirror (audience of 23.3 million) and The Sun (25.1 million) saw sfalls of 8%.

The BBC was again the UK’s biggest newsbrand by audience size. The corporation’s website reached 38.3 million people in May (76% of the UK online population aged over 15). It was followed by Mail Online (reach of 50%), The Sun (50% reach), the Mirror (47% reach) and The Independent (audience of 20.8 million, 41% reach).

Martin Lewis-run consumer news and advice website Money Saving Expert (13.2 million people) was again the best-ranked specialist newsbrand, although it dropped from 11th position in April’s ranking to 13th in May.

Manchester Evening News (11.6 million people, rank 14) was again the best-placed regional newsbrand. Fellow Reach regional brands, Birmingham Live (7.9 million people), Liverpool Echo (7.5 million) and Wales Online (7.2 million) also made the top half of the table.

To create this top-50 rankingt, Press Gazette used Ipsos’ ranking of the top online brand groups and selected the 50 biggest that Press Gazette considers to be based in journalistic content. Our list covers both consumer and industry (B2B) media. You can consult our list of 100 brands and read more about our criteria here.

The BBC led on engagement, with audiences spending 9.4 billion minutes with the brand in May which represents no change from April. It was again well ahead of second placed Mail Online (2.1 billion minutes) and third-placed Guardian (1.1 billion minutes), which overtook ITV this month due to a month-on-month audience boost for the newspaper publisher. Time spent with the Guardian was up 38% year-on-year.

The BBC also led for average minutes spent with its content per person per month (244 minutes). Ipsos’ data however, measures the total unduplicated number of people who used a brand’s websites and apps in a given month and includes all traffic, not necessarily just news. Data for brands such as the BBC and ITV which have a strong entertainment offering in addition to news content will therefore be higher.

April 2023

ITV was again the fastest-growing top ten newsbrand in the UK in April, according to Press Gazette’s monthly ranking.

ITV, which launched its streaming service ITVX at the end of 2022, saw similar growth last month with its year-on-year audience growing 25% in March.

Fellow broadcaster Sky News also grew its digital audience in April with unique visitors up 9% year-on-year to 17.7 million.

The Guardian (audience of 21.5 million people, up 7%), The Telegraph (15.9 million people, up 3%) and Mail Online (24.8 million people, up 1%) were the remaining three top ten newsbrands to grow in April.

At the other end of the top ten list, Metro (14.2 million people, down 18%) saw a double-digit year-on-year fall in audience.

Among the entire top 50, fastest-growing was GB News (5.8 million people, up 469%) Three Reach regional titles made the fastest-growing list. Nottinghamshire Live was up 68% year-on-year to 4.2 million, second-fastest growing was Time Out (4.4 million, up 40%) while Good Housekeeping (4.9 million people, up 35%) was third.

Time Out, which closed its print edition last year after 54 years, has featured among the fastest-growing sites in the top 50 regularly in 2023 and led the table in March.

The other two Reach regional newsbrands among the fastest-growing list were Lancs Live (3.1 million, up 22%) and Wales Online (7.3 million, up 18%).

The BBC was unmoved from its position at the top of the ranking for audience, reaching 38.1 million people in April – equivalent to 76% of the UK online population aged over 15.

It was followed by The Sun (26.3 million people, 56% reach) and The Mirror (audience of 24.8 million, 50% reach). The Guardian, which last month knocked The Independent out of the top five, retained its fifth place ranking in April with 21.5 million visitors during the month.

Martin Lewis’ consumer news and advice website Money Saving Expert (147.8 million people) was the best-ranked specialist newsbrand coming in 11th position, while Manchester Evening News (84.8 million people, rank 15) was the best-placed regional newsbrand.

For our list, we used Ipsos’ ranking of the top online brand groups and selected the 50 biggest that Press Gazette considers to be news or lifestyle sources. Our list covers both consumer and industry (B2B) media. You can consult our list of 100 brands and read more about our criteria here.

The BBC was top for engagement, with audiences spending 9.4 billion minutes with the brand in April, well ahead of second placed Mail Online (1.8 billion minutes) and third-placed ITV (727.1 million minutes). ITV saw the largest year-on-year growth, up 68%, in the total minutes spent with its content.

The BBC also led for average minutes spent with its content per person (246 minutes), while Mail Online (71 minutes) and ITV (51 minutes) were second and third respectively.

March 2023

ITV was the fastest-growing top ten newsbrand in the UK in March by a long margin, according to Press Gazette’s monthly ranking.

ITV’s audience was up 25% year-on-year and 5% month-on-month to reach 17.2 million people, according to data from Ipsos iris. ITV launched its streaming service ITVX, which includes news content, at the end of 2022.

Five other newsbrands in the top ten also grew in March. They were The Guardian (audience of 24.1 million, up 7% year-on-year), Sky News (19.2 million, up 4%), the BBC (39.2 million, up 2%), the Telegraph (16.8 million, up 1%) and The Sun (27.9 million, up 1%).

Among the top ten, The Independent saw the largest fall in audience (20.8 million, down 10% year-on-year). This followed a smaller drop of 2% in February.

The BBC retained its regular position at the top of the ranking for audience, reaching 78% of the UK online population aged over 15. It was followed by The Sun (56% reach), The Mirror (audience of 24.8 million, 50% reach), Mail Online (audience of 24.8 million, 50% reach) and The Guardian. In a reversal of last month’s change of position, the Guardian overtook the Independent to take a spot in the top five, while The Independent fell to sixth place.

Among the entire top 50, fastest-growing was Time Out (5.1 million, up 71% year-on-year). The destination specialist publisher, which was the second-fastest growing newsbrand in our list in February, closed its print edition last year after 54 years of publication.

It was followed this month by three Reach titles: Nottinghamshire Live (4.8 million, up 50% year-on-year), Wales Online (9.8 million, up 47% year-on-year) and Bristol Live (4.5 million, up 38% year-on-year).

The BBC again led for engagement, with audiences spending 9.4 billion minutes with the brand in March – up 1% year-on-year and up 3% month-on-month. Next best-ranked was Mail Online (2 billion minutes), and ITV (889.2 million). Reflecting its increased reach, the total minutes spent with ITV were up by 46% year-on-year.

February 2023

ITV and Manchester Evening News were the only top ten newsbrands in the UK to grow year-on-year in February according to Press Gazette’s monthly ranking.

ITV’s audience was up 20% year-on-year to 16.5 million, while the audience to Manchester Evening News grew 10% to reach 16.6 million, according to data from Ipsos iris.

ITV’s growth could be attributed to the launch of streaming service ITVX, which includes news content, towards the end of 2022. It also once again saw a large year-on-year increase in minutes spent with its content – up 54%.

The rest of the ten biggest newsbrands in February saw drops in audience. The Daily Express saw the biggest drop as its audience was down 17% to 16.7 million compared to February 2022. This followed a 17% year-on-year drop in January as well.

It was followed by Sky News (down 9% to 17.8 million), The Sun (down 8% to 26.8 million) and Mail Online (also down 8% to 23.4 million).

This is the second month for which Press Gazette has year-on-year data for the sites in our top 50 ranking following Ipsos’ recognition as the industry-recognised standard in 2021.

The BBC again commanded the largest audience during the month, reaching 78% of the UK online population aged over 15 (38.9 million people), followed by The Sun (54% reach), the Mirror (24.6 million people, 49% reach) and Mail Online (48% reach).

While the top four remained unchanged from last month, The Independent grew 8% compared to January reaching 21.1 million people, displacing The Guardian (audience of 20.7 million) from fifth place.

For our list, we used Ipsos’ ranking of the top online brand groups and selected the 50 biggest that Press Gazette considers to be news or lifestyle sources. From July onwards, this list of 50 is drawn from a list of 100 traditional and digital native online brands which in our view present editorially-driven content covering news, current events, lifestyle and culture. Our list covers both consumer and industry (B2B) media. You can consult our list of 100 brands and read more about our criteria here.

Among the top 50 as a whole, lifestyle and culture brands performed well for year-on-year growth, although fastest-growing was Reach regional Nottinghamshire Live (audience of 5.3 million, up 102% year-on-year). It was followed by Time Out (4.4 million, up 64%), which closed its print edition last year after 54 years of publication and Glamour UK (3.4 million, up 52%).

The BBC again led for engagement, with audiences spending 9.1 billion minutes with the brand in February – four times higher than next-best placed Mail Online (2.3 billion minutes), although the BBC figures include its entertainment content and not just news. Third was ITV (882.7 million minutes) while fourth was The Guardian (662.8 million minutes).

January 2023

The New York Times was the UK’s fastest-growing newsbrand in January, according to Press Gazette’s ranking of the 50 biggest online news names.

It was followed by Reach regional Nottinghamshire Live (six million visitors, up 62% year-on-year), Time Out (4.1 million visitors, up 47%) and music and entertainment publisher NME (4.1 million, up 43%).

This is the first month for which Press Gazette has year-on-year data for the sites in our top 50 ranking following Ipsos’ recognition as the industry-recognised standard in 2021. In January last year Ipsos increased the sources of embedded browser traffic counted in its data, as well as its total internet population figures.

Among the ten biggest sites by audience size, only Manchester Evening News (18 million visitors, up 5%) and the Mirror (25.3 million visitors, up 1% year-on-year) increased their traffic.

Among the top ten, the Independent (20.4 million visitors, down 12%), Metro (16.9 million, also down 12%) and the Daily Express (17.6 million, down 17%) saw the biggest year-on-year drops.

The BBC again commanded the largest audience during the month, reaching 76% of the UK online population aged over 15 (38.1 million people), followed by The Sun (26.3 million, 53% reach), the Mirror (51% reach) and Mail Online (24.3 million, 49%). The Guardian (21.7 million, 43% reach) rounded out a top five that saw the title climb one place on its December ranking, but remain otherwise unchanged.

The BBC again led for engagement by a long margin (audiences spent 9.9bn minutes with the brand in January), although it should be noted its figures include its entertainment content and not just news. Second-best placed was Mail Online (2.2 billion minutes) while third was The Guardian (731.8 million minutes).

Fourth best-ranked for total minutes, ITV saw a large year-on-year increase in minutes spent with its content which was up 39% to 701.5 million minutes. This could be attributed to the launch of streaming service ITVX, which includes news content, towards the end of 2022.

The New York Times, while ranking 26th for reach, came tenth for engagement having seen a huge year-on-year increase in time spent with the brand’s digital properties (212 million minutes, up 804% year-on-year). The site saw a boost in its popularity after its acquisition of Wordle last spring.

December 2022

The Telegraph was the UK’s fastest-growing top ten newsbrand in December, according to Press Gazette’s ranking of the 50 biggest online news names.

The audience to the Telegraph’s website and app increased by 6% month-on-month to 17.5 million visitors, according to data from Ipsos iris.

It was followed by Sky News (18.8 million unique visitors, up 5% compared to November) and Mail Online (24.4 million visitors, up 5%).

The Independent (22.2 million visitors, up 4%), Metro (17.4 million visitors, up 4%) and the BBC (38.6 million, up 1%) were the remaining top ten newsbrands by audience size to grow in December.

Manchester Evening News meanwhile saw its audience fall 6% to 18.3 million people – the biggest drop among the ten biggest newsbrands.

The order of the six biggest newsbrands by number of unique visitors remained unchanged in December compared to the previous month. The BBC commanded the largest audience during the month, reaching 77% of the UK population.

It was followed by The Sun (27.3 million visitors, 55% reach), the Mirror (25.5 million, reach of 51%), Mail Online (49% reach), The Independent (45% reach) and The Guardian (42% reach).

A number of newsbrands that did not make November’s top 50 entered the ranking this month. Among them were Ladbible stablemate Sportbible (3.1 million visitors, rank 50, up 12 places compared to November) and two Reach regional sites, Leicestershire Live (3.4 million visitors, rank 45, up eight places) and Leeds Live (3.1 million visitors, rank 49, up two places).

Sportbible was also the fastest-growing newsbrand among this month’s top 50 list. Its audience grew 29% month-on-month. Second-fastest growing was Reuters (4.4 million people, up 22%), while Radio Times (7.7 million people, up 18%) saw the third biggest growth.

The BBC again led for engagement. Audiences spent 9.3 billion minutes with its content in December – over four times as much as second-best placed Mail Online (2 billion minutes) and 11 times as much as third-placed ITV (819.6 million minutes).

November 2022

Reach regional sites dominated the list of fastest-growing newsbrands in the UK for the second month in a row, taking four of the top ten spots, according to Press Gazette’s ranking of the 50 biggest online news names.

The fastest-growing site was Nottinghamshire Live (5.8 million visitors, up 64% month-on-month) followed by Hull Live (3.4 million, up 52%). My London (6.8 million visitors, up 21%) and Lancs Live (4.1 million, up 21%) were also among the ten fastest-growing sites in fifth and sixth place respectively, according to data from Ipsos iris.

Several Reach regional sites in this month’s fastest-growing list hit audiences larger than the local population served by the title.

Among the largest ten newsbrands by audience size, the fastest-growing was ITV, which we have newly included in our top 50 ranking this month. As with the BBC, some of the audience will include visitors to ITV’s non-news content such as its entertainment programming. ITV’s audience grew 38% in November compared to October to reach 17.8 million people. According to ITV, its Anglia regional content performed particularly well in November with several stories making the national agenda, which may have contributed to the audience boost.

In November, ITV also launched a new streaming service, ITVX, which unlike its predecessor ITV Hub includes a news section featuring bespoke video packages and repurposed ITV news content.

Other top ten newsbrands to see audience growth in November were The Independent (21.4 million people, up 10%), Mail Online (23.3 million people, up 10%), Manchester Evening News (19.5 million people, up 9%), Mirror (25.6 million, up 9%) and the BBC (38.3 million, up 1%).

Sky News meanwhile saw its audience fall 10% to 17.9 million people – the biggest drop among the ten biggest newsbrands.

The BBC remained the UK’s leading newsbrand by audience size reach of 77% of people in the UK over 15. It was followed by The Sun (28.5 million visitors, 57% reach) and the Mirror (25.6 million visitors, 51% reach).

Among the top half of the top 50 ranking, most of the positions in the ranking remained unchanged or only slightly changed from last month. Nottinghamshire Live and Hull Live saw the biggest jumps in rank. HuffPost (audience of 3.3 million people, rank 50) meanwhile saw the biggest fall (12 places).

Brands such as Apple and Google, while well-known names in news, are excluded from our list given the wide reach of their other non-news content. Google News and Apple News are not reported by Ipsos as separate entities in brand level data.

The BBC again led for engagement as audiences spent 9.8 billion minutes with its content in November. It was followed by Mail Online (2 billion minutes) and ITV (975.9 million minutes).

October 2022

Reach regional sites dominated the list of fastest-growing newsbrands in the UK in October, taking the four top spots, according to Press Gazette’s ranking of the 50 biggest online news names.

Fastest-growing was Yorkshire Live (7.4 million visitors, up 56% month-on-month) followed by Chronicle Live (9.1 million, up 37%), Lancs Live (3.4 million, up 24%) and Liverpool Echo (13.1 million, up 19%).

Fellow Reach title the Manchester Evening News was the fastest-growing top ten newsbrand in October. Almost 18 million people used the site and app of the Reach “big city” brand in October according to data from Ipsos iris, an increase of 17% month-on-month.

MEN was one of only three top ten brands to see month-on-month increase in audience in October, alongside Sky News (audience of 19.8 million, up 5%) and The Sun (28.9 million, up 3%).

Instead most of the top ten newsbrands saw audience falls, with three newsbrands recording double-digit month-on-month falls in audience. The Independent’s audience was down 16% to 19.4 million people, Mail Online’s audience was down 13% to 21.2 million people and Metro was down 12% to 17.4 million people.

The BBC maintained its top spot as the biggest newsbrand by audience (38 million visitors, 76% reach). It was followed by The Sun (28.9 million visitors, 58% reach) and Mail Online (21.2 million visitors, 47% reach).

Among the top five biggest newsbrands, both the Mirror and the Guardian rose up the ranking one place, while Mail Online dropped two places into fifth on our list.

The BBC again led for engagement as audiences spent 10.4 billion minutes with its content in October. It was followed by Mail Online (2 billion minutes) and The Guardian (951.1 million minutes).

September 2022

The Telegraph website was the fastest-growing top ten newsbrand by audience size in September, according to Press Gazette’s ranking of the UK’s top 50 biggest names in news.

There were 18.5 million visitors to the Telegraph site in September, an increase of 13% month-on-month compared to August.

It was followed by The Guardian (23.5 million unique visitors, up 11% month-on-month), the i (15.6 million visitors, up 11%) and digital-only The Independent (23.1 million visitors, up 8%). Rounding out the top five for growth among the biggest ten sites was Sky News (18.9 million visitors, up 6%)

The BBC maintained its top spot as the biggest newsbrand by audience (38.7 million visitors, 78% reach).

It was followed by The Sun (27.9 million visitors, 56% reach) and Mail Online (24.5 million visitors, 49% reach) which overtook last month’s third biggest site the Mirror. Both the Mirror and Mail Online however saw slightly fewer visitors in September compared to August, and as a consequence saw their reach fall to just below 50%.

Hello! magazine was the best-ranked lifestyle brand on our list (14.7 million visitors, rank 13) followed by consumer advice site Money Saving Expert (13.5 million visitors, rank 14).

Among the top 50 as a whole, fastest-growing was Reach local site Bristol Live (3.3 million visitors, up 88%). It was followed by women’s lifestyle publication Cosmopolitan (6.2 million visitors, up 37%) and entertainment site Time Out (5.2 million visitors, up 34%).

The Financial Times (3.7 million visitors, up 17%) and The Times and Sunday Times (14.9 million visitors, up 15%) were also among the ten fastest-growing sites.

The BBC scored best for engagement as audiences spent a total of ten billion minutes with its content in September, placing it well ahead of second place Mail Online (2.1 billion minutes).

August 2022

The Daily Express was the fastest-growing top ten newsbrand by audience size in August, according to Press Gazette’s ranking of the UK’s top 50 biggest names in news.

The site’s audience was up 8% month-on-month in August to reach 18.3 million people.

With the exception of the Daily Express there was little month-on-month growth among the top ten sites, with the only other four top ten sites that grew month-on-month seeing increases in the low single figures. Second-fastest growing site Mail Online (audience of 24.7 million) saw its audience up by 3% month-on-month, visits to the Mirror (24.7 million) and The Guardian (21.1 million visitors) were both up 2% month-on-month, while the audience of the Manchester Evening News grew by 1% (16.2 million).

The BBC was once again the biggest newsbrand by audience (37.7 million visitors). It was followed by The Sun (27.7 million visitors, down 1%), The Mirror and Mail Online. They were the only four newsbrands to reach at least half of UK internet users aged over 15 in August.

While legacy newsbrands dominate the top of the list for reach, the best-ranked digital native site (excluding The Independent which has been online only since 2016 but started life in print), was consumer news and advice site Money Saving Expert (rank 11, audience of 14.6 million, up 14% month-on-month). Money Saving Expert was one of two specialist consumer verticals that featured high up in the list, with US-based Healthline Media (audience of 12 million, up 3%) coming in 16th.

The best-ranked regional newsbrand was again the Manchester Evening News. It was among 12 regional or local newsbrands in the top 50.

Among the whole list of top 50 sites, fastest-growing was Reach’s Edinburgh Live (3.3 million visitors, up 7% month-on-month), followed by Washington Post (3.9 million visitors, up 53%) and Women’s Health (3.3 million visitors, up 31%). Five of the top ten fastest growing sites were local (or sub-UK level) newsbrands – all owned by national and regional publishing giant Reach.

For our list, we used Ipsos’ ranking of the top online brand groups and selected the 50 biggest which Press Gazette considers to be news or lifestyle sources. From July onwards, this list of 50 is drawn from a list of 100 traditional and digital native online brands which in our view present editorially-driven content covering news, current events, lifestyle and culture. Our list covers both consumer and industry (B2B) media. You can consult our list of 100 brands and read more about our criteria here.

Best ranked for engagement was the BBC. Audiences spent a total of 9.3 billion minutes with its content in August – four times more than next-best ranked Mail Online (2 billion minutes). They were the only two newsbrands to rack up more than one billion minutes of engagement time.

The Telegraph, despite ranking ninth for reach (audience of 16.3 million), did comparatively well for engagement coming in fifth for time spent with its content (615.3 million minutes) as its audience on average spent 38 minutes with its content, which is mostly paywalled. Free-to-read Mail Online also scored well for average time spent (80 minutes per user).

July 2022

Sky News was the only top ten newsbrand by audience size to see double-digit month-on-month growth in July, according to Press Gazette’s ranking of the UK’s top 50 biggest newsbrands.

Sky News grew its audience by 10% compared to June to reach 19.8 million people in the UK over 15 according to data from Ipsos iris.

The UK broadcaster was one of six top ten brands to grow its audience in July. It was followed by The Telegraph (audience of 16.7 million, up 8%), Daily Express (audience of 17 million, up 5%) and Manchester Evening News (audience of 16 million, up 3%).

Two top ten newsbrands (The BBC and The Sun) saw their audiences remain largely unchanged from June, while last month’s fastest growing top ten newsbrand The Independent (audience of 21.9 million, month-on-month fall of 2%) and the Mirror (24.1 million, fall of 2%) saw small drops in audience.

For our list, we used Ipsos’ ranking of the top online brand groups and selected the 50 biggest considered to be news sources by Press Gazette. From July onwards, this list of 50 is drawn from a list of 100 traditional and digital native online brands which in our view present editorially-driven content covering news, current events, lifestyle and culture. Our list covers both consumer and industry (B2B) media. You can consult our list of 100 brands and read more about our criteria here.

The BBC was once again the UK’s biggest newsbrand by audience reach in July. The public broadcaster’s sites and apps reached 39.2 million people (79% of internet users aged over 15). Second-widest reaching was The Sun (27.9 million people, 56% reach) – the only other brand to reach more than half of the population. It was followed by The Mirror (24.1 million people, 48% reach) and Mail Online (24 million people, 48% reach).

Manchester Evening News (32% reach) was the best-ranked regional newsbrand in tenth place overall, while a number of US newsbrands featured among July’s top 50. Best-ranked among them was The New York Times (ranked 20, audience of 8.5 million people).

Ipsos’ data measures the total unduplicated number of people who used a brand’s websites and apps in a given month and includes all traffic, not necessarily just news. This will inevitably increase the audience to brands such as the BBC which have a strong entertainment offering in addition to news content.

The list of fastest-growing brands among the whole top 50 was topped by Reach’s Nottinghamshire Live (5.8 million, up 44%).

Huffpost (4.4 million people, up 29%) and Samsung’s news aggregator Upday (3.9 million people, up 27%) also saw growth of more than 20% compared to June.

Over half of the newsbrands in our ranking saw more engagement in July with several seeing particularly large increases in engagement.

Audiences spent 25.7 million minutes with Huffpost (up 48%) and 64.1 million with Upday (up 42%). US newsbrand, CNN was among the brands with the biggest drops in overall time spent with its content (27.9 million minutes, down 44%).

The BBC was well out ahead for both minutes spent with its online content and for page views.

This article was changed on 9 September and 12 September to reflect the removal of a brand, and addition of others in line with Press Gazette’s 100 newsbrands list. Month-on-month changes in page views and total minutes were removed for the BBC due to a change in the way BBC reports its traffic to Ipsos making June to July comparisons not reflective of performance.

June 2022

Metro and The Independent saw the biggest month-on-month growth in June of the UK’s ten largest newsbrands by audience size.

Both newsbrands grew their audiences by 7% compared to May, with Metro reaching 19.1 million people while The Independent reached 22.3 million, according to Ipsos iris.

They were followed by the Daily Express (16.3 million people reached, up 3%) and last month’s fastest growing top ten site Sky News (18 million, up 3%).

Of the four top ten newsbrands that saw a month-on-month fall in audience (BBC, Mirror, Manchester Evening News and Mail Online) none dropped by over 5%.

For our list, we used Ipsos’ ranking of the top online brand groups and selected the 50 biggest which, in Press Gazette’s view, have a significant news or journalistic offering. Although some of the brands on the list such as Apple and Google are well-known names in news, given the wide reach of their other non-news content we have excluded them from our custom list. The list does not include Google News and Apple News because they are not reported in this level of data as separate entities.

Among the 50 newsbrands in our list this month, the fastest growing was Ladbible which reached 9.2 million people over 15 – 36% more than in May. Its publisher, Manchester-based LBG Media, grew turnover by 81% year-on-year in 2021. One of the group’s other brands Sportbible also made the top 50 in 48th position with 3.2 million visitors (up 3% month-on-month).

Second-fastest growing was ITV (15 million people, up 22%). It was followed by Bristol Live (4.1 million people, up 21%) and The Financial Times (3.3 million visitors, up 15%).

Two newsbrands reached over half of the over 15 population in June. The BBC was the biggest newsbrand reaching 39 million people (79% reach), while second-biggest was The Sun (27.8 million visitors, 56% reach).

The Mirror’s reach was slightly lower in June compared to May, with 24.7 million visitors (a reach of 50% compared to 51% in June).

Ipsos’ data measures the total unduplicated number of people who used a brand’s websites and apps in a given month and includes all traffic, not necessarily just news. This will inevitably increase the audience to brands such as the BBC and ITV which have a strong entertainment offering in addition to news content.

Several household names in consumer finance and consumer choice also made the top 50. Money Saving Expert came in fourteenth place with 13.7 million visitors (down 1% month-on-month) while Money Super Market, part of the same group, was ranked 37th (4.3 million visitors, down 17% month-on-month). Product review and consumer rights brand Which meanwhile came in 35th place (5.3 million visitors, down 10% month-on-month).

Most brands saw less engagement in June but there were a few notable exceptions. ITV saw a large jump in total time spent with the brand in June (799.5 million minutes, up 76%) possibly due to the return of its hit programme Love Island, as did Hello! Magazine (85 million minutes, up 39%) and Ladbible (72.1 million minutes, up 20%). Financial Times (53.9 million minutes, up 15% month-on-month) and Bristol Live (12.8 million minutes, up 11% month-on-month) were the two other brands to see double-digit growth on this engagement metric in June.

Daily Star (65.1 million minutes) and Sky Sports (158.5 million minutes) saw the biggest drops in time spent (both down almost a quarter).

The BBC as in past months ranked top for both minutes spent with its online content (8.4 billion) and for page views (5.2 billion).

May 2022

Half of the top ten newsbrands in the UK saw month-on-month audience growth in May.

Of the ten largest newsbrands by audience size, Sky News saw the biggest month-on-month growth compared to April reaching 17.4 million people (up 7%), according to data from Ipsos iris. It was followed by the BBC (39.9 million visitors, up 4%) and The Telegraph (16 million visitors, up 4%).

The audience to the Manchester Evening News, the only top ten newsbrand to see any audience growth in April, was in contrast down 12% to 16 million.

For our list, we used Ipsos’ ranking of the top online brand groups and selected the 50 biggest which, in Press Gazette’s view, have a significant news or journalistic offering. Although some of the brands on the list of 500 such as Apple and Google are well-known names in news, given the wide reach of their other non-news content we have excluded them from our custom list. The list does not include Google News and Apple News because they are not reported in this level of data as separate entities.

Across the top 50 as a whole, the fastest-growing list was dominated by regional newsbrands. Reach’s Nottinghamshire Live (ranked 43rd for audience size) was the fastest-growing name in the list, up 46% month-on-month to reach 3.6 million people. National World’s Yorkshire Post was second-fastest growing (3 million people, up 28%, rank 49 ), while Lancs Live was third (3 million people, up 20%, rank 50). Eight of the ten fastest growing brands were local or sub-UK level titles.

Three newsbrands reached more than half of people in the UK over 15: the BBC (80% reach), The Sun (54%) and The Mirror (51%).

As in previous months, the BBC reached more people than any other newsbrand in the UK. Its content was accessed by 80% of internet users aged over 15. It was followed by The Sun (27.1 million people, down 1% month-on-month), The Mirror (25.4 million people, down 2%), and Mail Online (24.1 million people, down 1% month-on-month). Ipsos’ data measures the total unduplicated number of people who used a brand’s websites and apps in a given month and includes all traffic, not necessarily just news.

There were a number of specialist brands in the top 50. Best-ranked in 17th place was US-based Healthline Media, publisher of sites including medicalnewstoday.com and healthline.com (12.3 million people). It was followed by Digital Spy (7.1 million people, ranked 27th), and Which? (5.9 million people, ranked 32nd).

The majority of brands saw engagement up, with 30 of the top 50 brands seeing audiences spending more time with them in May compared to April. While audiences spent most time with the BBC overall (8.5 billion minutes), Sportbible saw the biggest month-on-month gain in total time spent with the brand (16.2 million minutes, up 59%).

Among the minority of brands that saw large month-on-month falls in minutes spent were CNN (47.5 million minutes, down 16%), Sky Sports (210.8 million minutes, down 19%) and InYourArea (41.2 million minutes, down 21%).

While it ranked sixth for audience, The Guardian came in fourth for number of page views (271.1 million), behind the BBC (4.7 billion), Mail Online (534.5 million) and The Sun (429 million).

April 2022

The Manchester Evening News was the only top-ten newsbrand to grow its audience in April compared to the month before.

The Reach “big city” brand was accessed by 18.1 million people in April – 36% of people in the UK over 15 – an increase of 4% month-on-month, according to data from Ipsos iris.

It was the only top ten UK newsbrand by audience size to see more visitors in April than March as the rest of the country’s leading news brands saw fewer visitors than last month.

Its recent run of audience growth means that the Manchester Evening News, consistently the best-ranked regional name, moved up the table again to become the seventh most popular UK newsbrand in April. The MEN, which was ranked eleventh in February, entered the top ten last month (in ninth place).

For our list, we used Ipsos’ ranking of the top online brand groups and selected the 50 biggest which, in Press Gazette’s view, have a significant news or journalistic offering. Although some of the brands on the list of 500 such as Apple and Google are well-known names in news, given the wide reach of their other non-news content we have excluded them from our custom list.

The BBC, the UK’s biggest name in news, reached 38.4 million people in April, a figure largely unchanged from last month (its audience fell by less than 1%).

The rest of the top five newsbrands by audience size also saw small declines in unique visitors in April. The Sun, the UK’s second-biggest online newsbrand, reached 27.4m (down 1% month-on-month), the Mirror reached 25.9m (down 2% month-on-month), Mail Online 24.6m (down 3% month-on-month) while The Independent reached 22.4m people (also down 3% month-on-month). Ipsos’ data measures the total unduplicated number of people who used a brand’s websites and apps in a given month and includes all traffic, not necessarily just news.

Among the top ten, the Daily Express saw the biggest audience fall. The tabloid’s digital offering reached 16.8m people (down 13% month-on-month).

Three newsbrands reached more than half of people in the UK over 15: the BBC (77% reach), The Sun (55%) and The Mirror (52%).

Among the whole top 50, Reach’s Irish Mirror – the Dublin-based sister title to the UK daily – was the fastest growing. The website and apps of the tabloid reached 2.9 million people – a 54% increase compared to March. It was followed by the Huffpost (audience of 3.7m, up 11%) which was the only other newsbrand to see double-digit growth in April.

Reach’s local news aggregator In Your Area (audience of 9.7m, up 4%) was third-fastest growing. They were among just nine newsbrands that had more visitors in April than March.

The month-on-month performance of the top 50 newsbrands this month is in contrast with March when over half of the names in the list saw an increase in traffic. As with the sites in our global and US rankings, this increased interest in news was likely linked to the Ukraine war and the cost of living crisis.

There were 11 local newsbrands among the top 50. After the Manchester Evening News, the next best-ranked were fellow Reach titles, Liverpool Echo (audience of 10.4m, rank 19) and Birmingham Live (10.3m, rank 20).

In Your Area was the best -ranked aggregator on the list, this month overtaking DMGT-owned Newzit which featured above it in the list last month. The list does not include Google News and Apple News because they are not reported in this level of data as separate entities.

Reflecting the fall in audience, engagement also fell in April. Just seven news brands saw an increase in total minutes spent with their content compared to last month. They were led by Irish Mirror (4.1m minutes, up 93% month-on-month) and Healthline Media (37.9m minutes, up 31%).

ITV and Sky News were among the household names that saw the biggest falls in time spent with their sites and apps. UK audiences spent 433.1m minutes with ITV (down 29%) and 520.6m minutes with Sky News (down 29% also).

Despite seeing an increase in visitors, audiences spent less time with Manchester Evening News this month (115.2m minutes, down 6% month-on-month).

Overall, UK news consumers spent most time with the BBC (7.8bn minutes), followed by Mail Online (1.9bn minutes) and The Guardian (799.7m minutes).

March 2022

Two of the top three fastest growing newsbrands in the UK in March were from America, continuing a strong run for US newsbrands in the UK in recent months.

The Washington Post was the second-fastest growing title in March (3.9m people, up 59%). It was followed by News Corp’s US title Wall Street Journal (3.7m people, up 55%).

In February, the New York Times, likely helped by its acquisition of popular word game Wordle, was the fastest growing newsbrand in the UK, more than tripling its month-on-month audience. This month the publisher saw a more modest gain of 5% to reach 1.2m people.

March’s audience growth for Manchester Evening News, consistently the best-ranked regional newsbrand, saw it move up the table. Its audience increased 16% month-on-month to reach 17.5m people – 35% of the UK internet population aged over 15.

Reach’s Leeds Live was however the newsbrand that saw the most month-on-month growth as it increased its audience by 66% compared to February to reach 3.2m UK internet users aged over 15.

Birmingham Live (11m people, 22% reach) and Liverpool Echo (10.8m people, 22% reach) were two other local newsbrands that made the top half of the UK ranking, given their large reach outside of their immediate local areas.

Likely driven by the search for content on Ukraine, 14 newsbrands saw double-digit month-on-month growth in the number of people accessing their sites and apps.

Of the ten brands with the biggest audiences, Reach’s Manchester Evening News saw the most growth. It was followed by The Independent (2% growth, audience of 23.2m) and The Guardian (2% increase, audience of 22.5m).

None of the other top ten newsbrands by audience size saw month-on-month growth in March, however. Last month’s fastest growing top ten newsbrand, The Mirror, saw an audience that remained largely unchanged (26.4m people, 53% reach). The Sun’s audience fell by 5% to 27.7m people (55% reach).

As in previous months, the BBC was the UK’s biggest newsbrand by a large margin reaching 38.7m people (78% reach). It was followed by The Sun, The Mirror and Mail Online (25.4m people, 51% reach). Together they were the four newsbrands in the UK with a reach of over 50%. Ipsos’ data measures the total unduplicated number of people who used a brand’s websites and apps in a given month and includes all traffic, not necessarily just news.

DMGT-owned Newzit was the best-ranked news aggregator in the list, which does not include Google News and Apple News since they are not reported in this level of data as separate entities. Newzit was used by 12.8m people (26% reach). Reach’s local news aggregator InYourArea was accessed by 9.3m people (19% reach).

Likely also driven by the war in Ukraine and other big stories such as the cost of living crisis, the biggest newsbrands did well on engagement metrics in March. The BBC was the most engaged-with brand in March based on total minutes spent with its sites and apps. Audiences spent 9.2bn with all BBC content in March (an increase of 8% compared to February), 2.1bn minutes with Mail Online (an increase of 15%), 940m minutes with The Guardian (up 12%) and 735m minutes with Sky News (up 13%).

February 2022

The New York Times more than tripled its audience month-on-month in February, making it the UK’s fastest-growing news brand.

The websites and apps of the US publisher reached 11.7m people (23% of internet users aged over 15) in February – more than three times the 3.5m people it reached the previous month, according to data from Ipsos.

Its growth put the title, which hit 10m subscriptions in February, in the top half of the table in seventeenth position. It was the second best-ranked non-domestic newsbrand in the list one place behind US group Healthline Media, publisher of Healthline.com, Medical News Today and Psych Central.

Reuters, which last year put its content behind a paywall, was the second-fastest growing news brand, reaching 4.6m people (up 25% month-on-month).

The New York Times and Reuters were two of five news brands that saw double-digit month-on-month growth in the number of people accessing their sites and apps, alongside Tom’s Guide, National World and CNN.

Among the ten biggest news brands by audience size, The Mirror was the fastest-growing. The Reach title was accessed by 25.6m million people (up 5% on January). It was followed by three brands that each saw a 2% month-on-month gain in audience: The Sun, Sky News and Mail Online.

As in past months, the BBC was the UK’s biggest newsbrand by far reaching 39.3m people (79% reach). It was followed by The Sun (29.1m – 58% reach) , Mirror (26.5m people – 53% reach and Mail Online (26m people – 52% reach). They were the only UK news brands to reach over half of internet users. Ipsos’ data measures the total unduplicated number of people who used a brand’s websites and apps in a given month and includes all traffic, not necessarily just news.

Eleventh-place Manchester Evening News, published by Reach, was the leading local news title (15.1m people). With a 30% reach the brand has a large audience outside of its home city, although it experienced a significant (12%) month-on-month fall in audience.

A number of Reach’s other regional brands, although featuring in the top half of the list for audience, also had large month-on-month falls in traffic. Among them, visitors to Birmingham Live were down 12% (10.6m people) and visitors to the Liverpool Echo were down 21% (9.7m people).

Reach’s local news aggregator InYourArea also saw a smaller audience in February than January (8.7m people, down 15%).

For our list, we used Ipsos’ ranking of the top 500 online brands and selected the 50 biggest which, in Press Gazette’s view, have a significant news or journalistic offering.

As of January, Ipsos has increased the sources of embedded browser traffic (web content viewed within a mobile app) counted in its data. Its monthly data now includes webpages consumed within other mobile app embedded browsers such as LinkedIn, Twitter, Google News and Instagram, as well as Facebook which has been counted in its data since 2021. Ipsos has also updated its total internet population figures to align with the latest Pamco survey estimates.

As well as commanding the biggest audience, the BBC was also the most engaged-with news brand by far. Audiences spent 8.5bn minutes with its sites and apps in February, although this includes not just its news content but entertainment, education and sports content as well.

It was followed by Mail Online (1.8bn minutes) and The Guardian (838m minutes) in a top three unchanged from last month. This month however, Sky News overtook The Sun to become the fourth-most engaged with news brand in terms of minutes spent with its content – 653m minutes compared to 641m minutes with The Sun.

January 2022

Four UK newsbrands reached more than half of the UK online population in January, according to data from Ipsos iris.

The Sun’s websites and apps reached 28.4m people (57% of internet users aged over 15), putting it narrowly ahead of Mail Online which reached 25.6m people (51% reach).

The BBC – the UK’s biggest newsbrand by far – reached 38.7m people (78% reach), while fourth-place Mirror reached 25.1m people (50% reach). Ipsos’ data measures the total unduplicated number of people who used a brand’s websites and apps in a given month and includes all traffic, not necessarily just news.

Coming in eighth place overall, Sky News (19.2m people, 38% each) was the next best-ranked broadcaster after the BBC.

Tenth-place Manchester Evening News, one of Reach’s best-known regional brands, was the leading local news title (17.1m people, 34% reach).

A number of Reach’s other regional brands featured in the top half of the list, including the Liverpool Echo (12.3m people, 25% reach), Birmingham Live (12m people, 24%), Daily Record (10.4m, 21%), aggregator InYourArea (10.3m people, 24%) and MyLondon (9.1m people, 18%).

For our list, we used Ipsos’ ranking of the top 500 online brands and selected the 50 biggest which, in Press Gazette’s view, have a significant news or journalistic offering.

The best-placed aggregator, DMGT-owned Newzit, ranked 13th with an audience of 14.5m people (29% reach).

When it comes to engagement, the BBC was the most engaged-with news brand, with audiences spending 9.1bn minutes with its sites and apps in January. It was followed by Mail Online (1.9bn minutes), The Guardian (971m minutes) and The Sun (600m minutes).

A number of newsbrands that came lower down the ranking for reach did much better for engagement per person. Users spent an average of 21 minutes with The Financial Times putting it in 11th place on this metric compared to 47th for reach, 21 minutes with news app Upday (14th for engagement; 49th for reach) and 18 minutes with Buzzfeed (15th for engagement but 46th for reach).

December 2021

News aggregation platform Newzit was the fastest-growing news site in December while Reach titles also saw impressive growth, according to Press Gazette’s latest ranking of the biggest English-language news sites in the UK.

DMGT-owned Newzit was visited 25.8m times in December – a 65% increase year-on-year from December 2020 (15.6m visits), according to data from digital intelligence platform Similarweb. Last September Press Gazette reported that Newzit had “come from nowhere to overtake The Times, Standard and i on UK page views”.

Although missing the top spot, Reach-owned titles featured prominently among December’s fastest-growing sites accounting for seven of the ten sites with most visit growth over the year. MyLondon was the second fastest-growing site in December (9.4m visits – up 41%), while third fastest-growing was the digital offering of two the publisher’s Scottish titles, The Daily Record and Sunday Mail (14m visits – up 24%).

Other Reach titles among the top ten for year-on-year growth were walesonline.co.uk (17.2m visits – up 16%), examinerlive.co.uk (8m – up 14%), dailystar.co.uk (24.4m – up 12%), leicestermercury.co.uk (5.5m visits – up 7%) and manchestereveningnews.co.uk (30.1m visits – up 6%).

Of the biggest ten sites in the top 50 by volume of visits, none saw year-on-year growth in December. Mirror.co.uk saw the smallest decline (61.2m visits – down 7%). The biggest declines among the household names were recorded by thesun.co.uk (65.1m – down 22%) and telegraph.co.uk (37.3m visits – down 25%).

In December 2020, a new coronavirus lockdown in the UK dominated the headlines, likely contributing to increased interest from readers.

The BBC was as usual the leading site by far for number of visits in December (669.1m). Its closest online competitor, Mail Online, had 155.8m visits. In third place, and the only other site to break 100m UK visits in the month, was theguardian.com (125.1m visits) while the Express site came in fourth place with 85.1m visits last month.

The leading sites largely saw a month-on-month uptick in traffic in December, after many saw a slump in traffic over the third quarter of 2021.

As has been the case for much of 2021 most sites among the top 50 saw year-on-year falls in traffic in December. Just 13 recorded an increase in traffic . Year-on-year comparisons are affected by the surge in interest in digital news during the pandemic and the run-up to the US election.

November 2021

The Sun was the UK’s biggest newspaper brand in November, according to Press Gazette’s new UK news ranking.

The Sun’s websites and apps reached 25.7m people in the UK (51% of adults over 15 who used the internet during the month), putting it second to only the BBC (38m people – 76% reach). Close behind the Sun were the Mirror’s group of sites and apps which reached 24.8m people (50% reach).

The BBC, Mirror and Sun were the only three news brands to reach at least 50% of the UK population, according to Ipsos iris, the UKOM endorsed UK standard for online audience measurement.

Fourth place Mail Online reached 22.5m people (45% reach), while the Independent reached 19.3m people (39% reach). Eighth-place Reach-owned Manchester Evening News was the leading local news brand (17m people – 34% reach).

For our list, we used Ipsos’ ranking of the top 500 online brands and selected the 50 biggest which in Press Gazette’s view have a significant news or journalistic offering. The figures measure the total unduplicated number of people who used the websites and apps under the organisation in a given month and include all traffic including distributed content, not necessarily just news.

While the top of the list was largely dominated by legacy media, Newzit, DMGT’s news aggregator which has seen quick success since being launched in 2019, came in twelfth place with an audience of 13.4m people (27% reach). Reach’s local news platform InYourArea had an audience of 11.3m people – 23% reach.

Bloomberg’s sites and apps saw the biggest month-on-month growth with November audiences up 31% compared to October. Nine other names saw double-digit growth, among them ITV (12.8m people -up 24% month-on-month), Which? (8.3m people – up 20%) and TechRadar (4.8m people – up 18%).

Manchester Evening News was however, the only brand among the top ten for audience size to see month-on-month growth (up 5%).

October 2021

Microsoft’s news platform MSN was the only major news site among the top 50 to record year-on-year growth in the number of visits, according to Press Gazette’s ranking of the biggest English language news websites in the UK.

This time last year the US election and the expected imposition of a new coronavirus lockdown dominated the headlines.

The rest of the top ten news sites by volume of visits in October, all saw year-on-year falls in traffic, according to data from web analytics firm Similarweb.

Of this leading group of sites, Mirror.co.uk saw the biggest fall (visits were down 30% year-on-year at 49.7 million). The Sun Online (54.9 million visits- down 28%), Sky News (35.2 million visitors – down 27%) and The Guardian’s site ( 111.5 million visits – down 27%) also saw significant falls of over 25%.

The BBC was again the leading site by far for number of visits in October (619.9 million) – counting five times as many as to second-place dailymail.co.uk (133.1 million visitors). In third place was theguardian.com while the Express site came in fourth place with 70.1 million visits last month.

Of the leading five sites by volume of visits, all have seen a slump in visits over 2021, although the Guardian saw a small 1% uptick in traffic between September and October.

Comparing year-on-year growth in audience for all top 50 sites, regional and local news sites featured prominently among the sites with the fastest growth, making up five of the top ten: mylondon.news (7.6 million visits in October – up 29%), kentonline.co.uk (5.9 million – up 9%), leicestermercury.co.uk (5.4 million – up 7%), examinerlive.co.uk (6.7 million visitors – up 7%) and walesonline.co.uk (15.8 million – up 6%). Four of the sites (not Kent Online) are owned by the UK’s largest regional publisher Reach which has in recent years seen rapid growth for its online regional brands.

In line with the global picture, a minority (10) of sites saw year-on-year traffic increases compared to last October. Year-on-year comparisons are affected by the surge in interest in digital news during the pandemic and the run-up to the US election.

September 2021

For the second month running, celebrity and showbiz brand Entertainment Daily was the fastest-growing news website in the UK in September with year-on-year visits up 123% from 1.9 million to 4.2 million in September.

It was followed by inews.co.uk which saw visits up 51% to 9.7 million. This month’s data continues a strong run of growth for the Daily Mail and General Trust-owned brand which was July’s fastest-growing site in the UK.

Next were two further sites owned by Reach. MyLondon was the third fastest-growing site in August with visits up 50% from 5.4 million to 8.1 million. It was followed by Examiner Live (7.5 million visits – up 35%).

Two other regional sites (kentonline.co.uk and walesonline.co.uk) also featured in the top ten fastest-growing sites year-on-year.

Established international and news brands were among those that saw the biggest year-on-year falls in traffic. Visits to CNN’s sites (cnn.com and edition.cnn.com) were down by 33% to 13.9 million, while visits to newyorktimes.com were 28% less than in September 2020 at 7.7 million. Visits to the Sun.co.uk were down 29% to 56.9 million. Like-for-like comparisons will be affected by the surge in traffic to news sites in 2020 due to a particularly intense news cycle last year.

Growing fastest month-on-month was the website of Reach-owned Hull Daily Mail – visits to the site were 5% higher than in August (4.4 million visits in September). MSN.com saw similar growth in visits (up 5% to 44.1 million). Only a handful of sites however, saw more traffic in September compared to August (among them ft.com, heraldscotland.com, entertainmentdaily.co.uk, walesonline.co.uk and nottinghampost.com).

This month Press Gazette’s analysis includes for the first time visits to MSN.com and Yahoo! News.

When it comes to the leading sites for volume of visits, the BBC’s digital properties, bbc.com and bbc.co.uk, remained ahead in the UK. The two sites together racked up 628.5 million visits in September. Second-placed dailymail.co.uk counted 137.6 million visits during the month while third-placed theguardian.com had 110.3 million visits. Similarweb data for the BBC however includes visits to both the BBC’s main website as well as BBC News. Its data for MSN similarly covers visits to the portal, rather than just its news section.

Half (25) of the current top 50 sites had year-on-year traffic increases, while half saw a decline.

August 2021

Celebrity and showbiz brand Entertainment Daily was the fastest-growing news website in the UK in August with year-on-year visits up 120% from 1.9 million to 4.1 million.

It was followed by last month’s fastest-growing website, the Daily Mail and General Trust-owned inews.co.uk which saw visits up 66% to 10.1 million.

The third fastest-growing was aljazeera.com which was up 29% to 4.6 million visits according to Press Gazette’s exclusive ranking of the country’s most popular news websites.

As in previous months, visits to several local and regional news sites were also significantly higher year-on-year. Reach-owned MyLondon was the fourth fastest-growing site in August with visits up 27% from 6.4 million to 8.2 million, while another Reach property WalesOnline was sixth (16.4 million visits – up 19%).

Edp24.co.uk, examinerlive.co.uk, thenorthernecho.co.uk, leicestermercury.co.uk and kentonline.co.uk were other local titles among the top 15 sites for year-on-year growth in August.

At the other end of the table, buzzfeed.com saw the biggest year-on-year fall with visits down 30% to 6.1 million. It was followed by nytimes.com to which visits were down 28% to 8.2 million.

Growing fastest month-on-month was the website of Qatari international broadcaster Al Jazeera – visits to aljazeera.com were 28% higher than in July (3.5 million visits that month). Completing the top five for monthly gains were four Reach sites: dailyrecord.co.uk (14.6 million visits – up 8%), Leicestershire Live (6.4 million – up 7%), dailystar.co.uk (25.7 million – up 7%) and Yorkshire Live (7.6 million visits – up 2%).

When it comes to the leading sites for volume of visits, the BBC’s digital properties, bbc.com and bbc.co.uk, are clear leaders again. The two sites together racked up 663.6 million visits in August. Second-placed dailymail.co.uk counted 145.5 million visits during the month while third-placed theguardian.com had 117.7 million visits. Similarweb data for the BBC however includes visits to both the BBC’s main website as well as BBC News.

As in previous months, rounding out the top five for number of visits are express.co.uk and thesun.co.uk.

Of the current top 50 sites, 20 had year-on-year traffic increases, while 30 saw a decline month-on-month. Just 11 sites saw more visits in August compared to July.

July 2021

Daily Mail and General Trust website inews.co.uk was the fastest growing UK news website in July with year-on-year visits up 87% from 7.2 million to 13.5 million, according to data from Similarweb.

As in June, local and regional news sites also made strong showings when it came to year-on-year growth in audience.

Reach-owned Wales Online was the second-fastest growing site in July with visits up 61% from 12.2 million to 19.5 million, while alternative video news platform, Bitchute was the next fastest growing site (3.9 million visits – up 55%), according to data from web analytics firm Similarweb.

Eight local and regional titles made the top 15 fastest growing sites. Reach-owned mylondon.news was the sixth fastest growing site with year-on-year visits up 49% from 5.7 million to 8.5 million. It was followed by Examiner Live, one of several “Live” brands launched by Reach in recent years, with year-on-year visits up 39% from 5.4 million to 7.4 million.

The site got a boost after it was rolled into the company’s broader Yorkshire Live brand. Other local offerings in the top 15 included kentonline.co.uk and Reach brands liverpoolecho.co.uk and manchestereveningnews.co.uk.

Among the sites with the biggest year-on-year falls in traffic were several US newsbrands. Visits to the CNN”s sites were down 37% to 15.9 million in July, while visits to nytimes.com were down 26% to 8.4 million.

When it comes to the monthly growth in visits, inews.co.uk was again the leading site with visits up 48% on June 2021’s figure of 9.1 million. Also in the top five was kentonline.com (6.5 million – up 36%), manchestereveningnews.co.uk (30.9 million – up 29%), hellomagazine.com (26.4 million – up 30%) and thescotsman.com (6.3 million – up 2%).

Leading the list for volume of visits were the BBC’s digital properties, bbc.com and bbc.co.uk – clear leaders. The two sites together racked up 747.3 million visits in July. Second-placed dailymail.co.uk counted 156.8 million visits during the month – a little over a fifth of the BBC’s figures. Similarweb data for the BBC, includes visits to both the BBC’s main website as well as BBC News.

As in previous months, rounding out the top five for number of visits are theguardian.com, express.co.uk and thesun.co.uk.

Taken as a whole, the 50 leading news sites in July had a combined 1.8 billion visits, which is in line with the total in recent months. Year-on-year traffic is, however, slightly up – by six per cent. Of the current top 50 sites, most (33) had year-on-year traffic increases, while 17 saw a decline. The picture month-on-month is similar: 38 sites saw a gain in visits compared to June, while 12 had less visits in July.

June 2021

Local and regional news platforms dominated the list of sites that saw the biggest year-on-year growth in audience in the UK last month.

The website of Scottish free-to-air broadcaster STV was the fastest-growing site between June 2020 and June 2021, according to data from web analytics company Similarweb, which combines traffic to both news.stv.tv and stv.tv.

11 other local and regional titles made the top 15, including seven from the UK’s biggest regional publisher Reach.

Examiner Live, which was rolled into Yorkshire Live and is one of several “Live” brands launched by Reach in recent years, was the second fastest growing site, with year-on-year visits up 64% from 4.6m to 7.5m.

It was followed in third place by celebrity and entertainment-focused news site entertainmentdaily.com, which saw visits increase by 63% from 2.9m to 4.7m.

Other Reach sites in the top 15 included national titles walesonline.co.uk and dailyrecord.com, as well as cornwalllive.com, birminghammail.co.uk, liverpoolecho.co.uk and mylondon.news. Two Newsquest sites (lancashiretelegraph.co.uk and telegraphandargus.com) also made the leading 15 sites for growth.

Among the sites with the biggest year-on-year falls in traffic were several US newsbrands that had benefitted from a particularly buoyant 2020 for traffic due to the US election and the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. Visits to the site of The New York Times were down 33% to 8.5m, while visits to cnn.com and edition.cnn.com were down 43% to 15.5m.

When it comes to monthly growth in visits, stv.com was again the leading site with visits up 167% on May’s figure of 2m. Also in the top five was cornwalllive.com (5.5m, up 16%), devonlive.com (5.2m, up 7%), thesun.co.uk (69.5m, up 7%) and walesonline.co.uk (18.2m, up 7%).

As in previous months, the BBC’s sites were the outright leaders for news in the UK. BBC.co.uk and BBC.com together counted 758m visits in June. Second-placed dailymail.co.uk counted 148.6m visits during the month – five times less than the BBC.

Also in the top five when it comes to number of visits are the sites of three other established news brands: theguardian.com, express.co.uk and thesun.co.uk.

Combined visits to the current top 50 sites saw very little change on May’s list. The leading 50 sites in June had a combined 1.8bn visits – the same as in May. Overall, year-on-year traffic saw a slight boost with combined visits up 5% compared with June 2020. Of the current top 50 sites, 29 had year-on-year traffic increases, while 12 saw month-on-month gains.

April 2021

Local news sites were among those that saw the biggest year-on-year growth in audience in the UK in April.

Hellomagazine.com was the single fastest growing site according to data from Similarweb, but four Reach titles were among the ten sites that saw the most growth in audience between April 2020 and April 2021.

Leicester Live, one of several digital newsbrands launched by Reach in recent years, was the second fastest growing site, with year-on-year visits up 70% from 3.2m to 5.4m. It was followed in third place by another Reach brand, Birmingham Live, which saw visits increase 67% from 8.4m to 14.1m. Examiner Live, which got a boost after it was rolled into the company’s broader Yorkshire Live brand, came in sixth with visits up 52% to 5.7m. Also in the top ten was Reach national title the Daily Star.

Among the sites with the biggest year-on-year falls in traffic were several national newsbrands. The Financial Times saw visits fall 32% to 11.2m, while the audience to metro.co.uk was down 37% to 22.4m.

When it comes to monthly growth in visits, local news sites again led the way. Visits to the website of Reach title the Liverpool Echo were up 10% on last month at 15.8m, while the 24.4m visits to the website of the Manchester Evening News, the UK’s most popular online local news brand, represented an 8% increase on March. Russian state-funded English news site RT.com also made the top five for growth with its 4.8m visits in April – an increase of 5% on last month.

When it comes to the leading sites for volume of visits, the BBC’s digital properties, BBC.com and BBC.co.uk are clear leaders. The two sites together racked up 689m visits in April – almost five times more than second-placed dailymail.co.uk, which counted 144m visits during the month.

Rounding out the top five when it comes to number of visits were the sites of three other established news brands: theguardian.com, express.co.uk and thesun.co.uk.

Combined visits to the current top 50 sites were slightly down compared with March. The leading 50 sites racked up 1.7bn visits between them in April – 6% lower than the previous month. Overall, year-on-year traffic saw a slight boost with combined visits up 6% compared with April 2020. Of the current top 50 sites, 27 had year-on-year traffic increases, while just six saw month-on-month gains.