The Guardian is again the biggest commercial newsbrand in the UK by audience size after a month behind The Sun, according to the latest data from Ipsos iris.
The Guardian was down 0.2% month on month in June to an audience of 22.6 million while The Sun was down 1.4% to 22.4 million. Compared to June 2024 they were up 12.5% and down 4.7% respectively.
The Daily Express was the biggest winner in the top ten by audience, rising by 2.2% month on month but 31% compared to June last year, reaching 18.5 million.
Reach sister title the Mirror was up 2.8% month on month but down 8% year on year to 20.7 million.
Mail Online (now being referred to as the Daily Mail in the UK) was the biggest faller in the top ten by audience size, down 7% month on month to 20.3 million and moving down from fourth to sixth place (now behind the BBC, Guardian, Sun, Independent and Mirror).
However Mail Online stayed steady on engagement for the month, with total minutes spent staying steady month on month at 1.3 billion in June (although this was down 7.6% year on year) and page views down 1% month on month to 498.9 million.
Among the top ten for audience, more than half grew their minutes spent compared to May but eight out of ten were down year on year by this metric with the biggest drop at the Mirror (down 9.1% to 228.2 million minutes).
The exceptions were Yahoo! (minutes up 8.7% year on year to 1.8 billion) and The Independent (up 19.3% to 188 million).
Among the whole top 50, the biggest month-on-month growth in minutes spent was ITV (which, like the BBC, includes its entertainment offering) – up 26.1% to 934.2 million minutes spent in June, although it was down 34.3% year on year.
Two other broadcasters were also in the top ten for minutes growth: GB News was up 15.1% month on month to 54.4 million minutes while Sky News was up 10.8% to 627.7 million. GB News was also among the biggest growers year on year, up 89.5%.
The biggest month-on-month audience growth in June was at Reach regional Devon Live, which was up by a third to reach 5.3 million people.
It was followed by the Daily Star (up 18.1% to 6.4 million) and Time Out (up 14.9% to 4.7 million).
The biggest month-on-month audience declines were at Nottinghamshire Live (down 20.3% to 3.6 million) and Radio Times (down 18.7% to 6.1 million).
On a year-on-year basis nine of the top ten audience growers were Reach regionals, led by Surrey Live up 348.8% to 4.5 million. The only non-Reach title was Good Housekeeping, up 75.4% to 5 million.
The biggest year-on-year audience drop was Healthline Media, down 31.4% to 6.5 million, followed by Forbes which was down 19.3% to 5.3 million.
The Ipsos iris 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, ITV and Channel 4, which have a strong entertainment offering in addition to news content, will therefore be higher.
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.
May 2025
Two-thirds of the 50 biggest news websites in the UK saw audience growth in May, according to the latest Ipsos iris data.
However just half saw monthly growth in engagement via either total minutes spent or page views.
The tussle at the top of the ranking for audience reach among the four biggest commercial newsbrands continued with The Sun rising from fourth to second place behind only the BBC (reach of 40.8 million).
The Sun was up 4.3% month on month to 22.73 million but down 5% year on year.
Meanwhile the audience of The Guardian (22.68 million) and Mail Online (21.77 million) were up by a smaller 3.4% and 2.6% respectively compared to April, and The Independent (21.23 million) was down 2.7%.
Among the top ten, Sky News saw the biggest month-on-month growth of 15% to an audience of 19.5 million, meaning it rose from tenth to seventh place.
In total, eight of the top ten for audience reach saw month-on-month growth while half saw year-on-year growth, led by the Daily Express (up 22.6% to 18.11 million) and The Telegraph (up 20.4% to 18.18 million).
MSN and Yahoo data have been incorporated since April, which may have led to some variations.
Among the entire top 50, 33 saw month-on-month growth and 32 were up year on year.
Nottinghamshire Live saw the biggest month-on-month jump (up 62% to 4.6 million) while fellow Reach title Surrey Live was up 310.5% year on year to 5 million.
Four Reach websites saw their audience at least double in the past year. The biggest of these sites was Examiner Live in Huddersfield, up 200.4% to reach 9.2 million people in May. Nine of the ten biggest sites for year-on-year audience growth were owned by Reach, with Good Housekeeping (up 55.1% to 4.9 million) as the exception.
In terms of engagement, 26 of the top 50 saw their page views increase month on month, led by Nottinghamshire Live up 69.5% to 19.1 million. But Surrey Live saw the biggest drop, down 34.1% to 18.7 million.
Just over half (27) saw month on month growth in total minutes spent, led by Bristol Live up 126.5% to 18.2 million minutes in May.
The top ten news websites for total minutes spent stayed mostly the same except Channel 4 fell from fifth to seventh, down 10% month on month to 688.3 minutes.
Year on year, Surrey Live’s minutes were up 251.5% to 5.4 million while Forbes was down 43.3% to 7.2 million and Digital Spy was down 42.8% to 10.7 million.
April 2025
The top four commercial newsbrands in the UK were neck-and-neck for audience in April, according to the latest Ipsos iris figures.
The Guardian (21.9 million, up 4% month on month and 7% year on year) jumped up a place to be the biggest behind the BBC (40.2 million, including non-news content at the same domain).
The Independent rose two places (21.8 million, up 13% MoM and 11% YoY) while The Sun stayed in fourth spot overall (21.8 million, up 6% MoM but down 7% YoY).
Mail Online fell from second place behind the BBC to fifth (21.2 million, flat month on month and down 6% year on year).
All four commercial newsbrands had an audience of within less than one million of each other.
The April 2025 audience reach and engagement figures from Ipsos iris include for the first time syndicated traffic via versions published on MSN and Yahoo! for the originator newsbrands. Not all publishers work with MSN and Yahoo! (for example The Sun).
Elsewhere among the top ten, the Daily Express saw the largest year-on-year growth of 39% to 17.4 million helping it to overtake Sky News (17 million, down 1% MoM and 6% YoY).
After entering Press Gazette’s top-50 audience ranking for the first time in March, Substack has dropped back out (it would be in 51st place). Although Substack continued to grow (up 4% month on month and 75% year on year) several other titles saw bigger growth and leapfrogged it to join the list.
They include Reach’s site for the UK capital, MyLondon, which re-entered the ranking in 38th place with an audience of 4.4 million (up 75% month on month and 61% year on year).
This was the biggest month-on-month growth, followed by fellow Reach title Belfast Live (up 42% to 3.7 million) and LBC (up 40% to 5.4 million).
On a year-on-year basis, Surrey Live – one of the Reach regionals to be benefitting from finding its topic niche within Google Discover – was up 405% to 4.8 million followed by three other Reach titles that more than doubled their monthly reach. Leicestershire Live was up 185% to 4.1 million, Leeds Live was up 156% to 4.3 million and Belfast Live was up 117%.
Two newsbrands saw their audience down by more than a fifth compared to March 2024: Digital Spy, down 27% to 4.5 million, and Healthline Media, down 24% to 6.8 million.
On a month-on-month basis, three brands were all down by 12%: Healthline Media, the Daily Record (audience of 7.5 million) and Devon Live (6.7 million).
In terms of engagement, MyLondon and Surrey Live also saw the biggest month-on-month growth in total minutes spent, up 128% (to 6.5 million minutes) and 63% (to 6.2 million) respectively.
Eight of the top-ten newsbrands by total minutes spent with their content saw a drop compared to March. The two exceptions were Channel 4 (which like the BBC includes non-news content), which was up 14% month on month to 764.8 million minutes, and The New York Times, up 10% to 468.9 million.
March 2025
Substack entered Press Gazette’s ranking of the 50 biggest news websites in the UK in March.
The newsletter and website network saw its UK audience grow by a fifth between February and March and by 69% year on year to reach 3 million people according to Ipsos iris data.
This means Substack now reaches 6% of the UK population, more than US news website CNN which dropped off the top-50 list in March. Substack has entered the ranking in 49th place, above The Scotsman in 50th.
To create this 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 of any genre.
Substack’s list of the 25 biggest publications on its platform categorised as news contain several UK-based names: London Centric by former Guardian media editor Jim Waterson was in 14th place at the time of writing, ex-Sun and GB News journalist Dan Wootton’s Outspoken was in 20th spot, and local news round-up The Edinburgh Minute by Michael MacLeod was in 21st.
Despite being 49th in the table for audience reach, Substack was 23rd when ranked by total minutes spent with its content, just above Hello! Magazine (42.1 million minutes) and GB News (41.6 million).
Users spent 42.7 million minutes with Substack in March, up 54% compared to the previous month and 244% compared to March 2024 – the biggest growth in time spent by both metrics.
Substack’s UK page views were up 16% to 12.4 million, the same level of growth as the Evening Standard (26.1 million page views) and the Mirror (125.2 million).
LBC saw the second-biggest month-on-month growth in time spent across its platforms, up 47% to 45.9 million minutes, but was down 30% compared to March 2024.
Looking at reach, several major brands switched places in March with The Guardian (reach of 21.1 million, up 6% month on month) back in front of The Sun (20.6 million, up 3%). Mail Online remained the biggest commercial newsbrand, on 21.2 million (up 2%).
Meanwhile ITV (for which figures include its non-news entertainment TV offering) was down 3% month on month and dropped several places to 13th behind The Telegraph (15.9 million, up 10%), Money Saving Expert (15.2 million, up 9%) and Metro (15.1 million, up 8%).
All of the top-ten biggest brands by audience size saw month-on-month growth in March, an improvement from February when the only increase was of 0.8% at The Sun.
In March, half saw year-on-year growth compared to four in February.
The biggest boosts were at news aggregator Yahoo! (up 12% month on month to 18.9 million) and the Daily Express (up 25% year on year to 16.6 million).
Among the wider top 50 for audience reach, most (36) saw month-on-month growth led by GB News (up 10%) to 9.1 million). The biggest drop was at Reach regional Bristol Live (down 21% to 4.9 million).
On an annual basis, just over half (28) saw growth, led by Reach local titles Surrey Live (up 221% to 3.5 million) and Leeds Live (up 204% to 4.8 million).
The biggest declines were at Hearst-owned entertainment site Digital Spy (down 36% to 4.1 million) followed by Reach-owned Ok magazine (down 32% to 3.5 million) and Daily Star (down 28% to 4.5 million).
February 2025
Five newsbrands saw a growth in minutes spent with their content in the UK in February compared to the month before, despite it being a shorter month.
Total minutes spent with CNN’s digital output in the UK was up 25.8% to 17.2 million in February.
Although CNN came 50th when ranked by audience reach having re-entered the table this month, it was in 31st place for minutes spent with its content.
Reach regionals Leeds Live and Bristol Live were up 9% to 7.6 million and 6.6% to 8.5 million respectively while Good Housekeeping (up 6.5% to 6.3 million minutes), ITV (up 5.5% to one billion) and Reuters (up 5.3% to 12.5 million) were the others seeing a boost in engagement. ITV’s figures, similar to the BBC and Channel 4, include its non-news entertainment offering.
Of those brands, only the top two also saw year-on-year growth: CNN up 6.6% and Leeds Live up 103.5%.
Less than half (19) of the top 50 online newsbrands in the UK saw a year-on-year increase in minutes spent. The biggest gain was at Surrey Live (up 157.3% to 4 million minutes) amid the site finding success with referrals for health and wellness content from platforms like Google Discover.
Also up were The i Paper (up 26.9% to 62.4 million minutes) and The New York Times (up 21.1% to 391.9 million).
Looking at audience reach, The Sun overtook The Guardian to become the second-biggest commercial publisher behind Mail Online. The Sun had dropped to sixth place in October but has worked its way back up the ranking.
The Sun saw marginal month-on-month growth of 0.8% in February to reach 20.1 million people – the only monthly growth among any of the top ten newsbrands.
The Guardian was down 6.2% to 19.9 million and Mail Online was down 3.2% to 20.8 million.
However, The Sun did see the second-biggest year-on-year audience drop among the top ten of 14.2%, behind only the Mirror down 14.5% to 18.2 million.
Four of the top-ten newsbrands did see year-on-year audience increases: the Express was up 34.5% to 15.7 million continuing a run of growth following a leadership shake-up in the second half of 2024, while aggregator Yahoo! was up 11.6% to 16.9 million, the BBC was up 2.7% to 38.6 million and ITV was up 1.3% to 14.6 million.
Six Reach-owned regionals were among the ten brands with the biggest month-on-month audience growth in February, led by Chronicle Live in Newcastle (up 26.9% to 4 million) and Leeds Live (up 24.8% to 4.8 million).
All six of the biggest growers year on year were also Reach regionals, followed by fellow Reach title the Express.
January 2025
The Express grew its UK audience by a third between January 2024 and 2025, according to the latest data from industry-recognised Ipsos iris.
Express.co.uk was up by 32% year on year and 8% month on month to reach 17.1 million people in January, making it the ninth biggest news website in the country.
The Express is said to be in “the next phase of its evolution” following a leadership shake-up in the second half of 2024.
Just six news websites in Press Gazette’s monthly top-50 ranking saw bigger annual growth, of which five were regional brands also owned by parent company Reach and the sixth was Forbes.
With 136.9 million page views, Reach noted that the Express also “recorded its best page view month since July 2024, when it enjoyed a record-setting best ever month”.
Of the ten biggest news websites in the UK, eight saw month-on-month growth from December to January while half grew year on year.
Eight out of the ten biggest websites saw the minutes spent with their content decline between January 2024 and 2025. However all ten sites saw month-on-month growth in their minutes spent, indicating a more recent upwards trajectory.
The biggest year-on-year decline in minutes spent among the ten biggest sites was at The Guardian, down 28% to 761.3 million.
The Telegraph bucked the trend, with minutes up 20% year on year (and 10% month on month) to 883.6 million. It is the fifth biggest news website by total minutes spent even though it is tenth for total audience (15.6 million people in January).
The other exception was news aggregator Yahoo!, with total minutes spent in January up 16% (and 4% month on month) to 1.9 billion.
Of the ten sites, the biggest month-on-month growth in minutes spent was at Express sister title the Mirror, up 16% to 236.2 million minutes.
The biggest growth in minutes spent overall came at Reach regionals: Bristol Live on a month-on-month basis (up 56% to eight million) and Surrey Live year on year (up 202% to 5.6 million).
The biggest annual growth in audience was similarly at Surrey Live with a reach of 4.4 million people, up 320% in a year. Reach chief executive Jim Mullen noted in the company’s annual results on Tuesday that this growth was largely down to content coming from its central content hub helping it to build a “strong audience in health and wellness”.
On a month-on-month basis two Reach regionals again were top of the table for growth with Bristol Live up 60% to an audience of 5.7 million people in January and the Examiner Live in Huddersfield up 32% to 4.8 million. Behind them were the Financial Times (up 25% to 4.4 million) and Reuters (up 24% to 4.1 million).
David Higgerson, Reach’s chief digital publisher, said: “Building on a strong end to 2024, it’s great to see that over half of our sites are now in page view growth, year on year. What’s particularly meaningful about these numbers is not just that we’re getting more page views overall, but that our audience is choosing to come back to us more often, with page views per user up by 32%.
“It’s a very positive sign too that we’re attracting more under-35s, in large part thanks to more young people finding our content off platform.
“This is testament to a lot of the work that our teams have put into producing engaging content across a range of channels. The success of our Content Hub has also allowed our brands to spend more time deepening their relationships with their audiences, which we can see now bearing fruit.”
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