September 25, 2014

Referendum day saw Scotsman website attract 1m page views – beating previous record by 50 per cent

The Scotsman website reported record web traffic and a print circulation rise of 25 per cent as a result of its referendum coverage last week.

Last Thursday, on the day of voting, the Johnston Press site reported 1m page views – beating its previous best day by 50 per cent.

And its circulation saw week on week increases of 13 per cent on Thursday, 21 per cent on Friday and 25 per cent on Saturday, according to JP.

The Edinburgh Evening News, also a Johnston Press title, reportedly saw its circulation increase by 5 per cent week on week on Thursday and 21 per cent on Friday.

Total unique browsers for both titles' websites have topped 3m for the month of September, the publisher said, equating to 56 per cent of the country’s population.

JP said the Scotsman’s referendum microsite, an aggregator of independence content from the internet, got 60,000 unique browsers on the day of the vote – four times higher than its previous record.

Its live blog, meanwhile, reached 85,000 people, one of the Scotsman’s weekly Google Hangouts received 10,000 views and the Edinburgh Evening News’s digital front page was reached by 381,300 people on Facebook.

Lucy Sinclair, chief marketing officer of Johnston Press, said: “We are immensely proud of these latest figures and the dramatic expansion of our reach as a result of our dedicated editorial coverage of one of the biggest decisions this country has seen in recent years.

“Our teams ensured our Scottish referendum coverage was provided to our audiences in a plethora of different formats, from live updates, to a deeper post-decision analysis, and the results have been staggering. It’s clear that there is a strong appetite for receiving good quality reporting on local issues on the ground, and we are committed to ensuring we can provide this for all local communities in the UK across our titles.”

Yesterday, the Sunday Herald – the only Scottish title to declare support for independence – reported a 111 per cent year on year increase in circulation. The Sunday Herald quoted internal figures showing a sale of 49,291 last week. The paper said on Twitter: “We are speechless and very grateful.”