Newsquest's Daily Echo has celebrated attracting more than 1m unique websites browsers in January (a 42 per cent increase year on yaer).
Staff celebrated with a Champagne reception on the roof of the Echo building and a photo taken from an aerial drone which appeared as a double-page spread in the paper.
Group editor Toby Granville (recently promoted to the role of Newsquest’s Group Editorial Development Director) said: “While the BBC makes absurd claims that the regional press is in ‘decline’ as a means to muscle into our patches, we’ve just recorded our highest ever website figures with over a million visitors. Clearly, thanks to our dedicated hard-working team of journalists, these fast-growing figures prove that it is we in the regional press who are providing the local population with all the best news and information they need – and exactly when they want it.”
Bournemouth West Conservative MP Conor Burns – a member of the House of Commons culture, media and sport select committee – said: “For the Bournemouth Daily Echo to get over a million unique browsers in January is an amazing start to the year. That’s first and foremost a major vote of confidence in the Echo by its readers, both online and in hard copy. It’s a tribute to the quality reporting that the Echo’s website is deemed to be a ‘must-visit’ for our local population.”
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