The Independent had a record traffic month in the US in September overtaking rivals The Guardian and Daily Mail according to audience data provider Comscore.
The title, which launched a new URL for its US edition this summer at the-independent.com, had 41.4 million unique visitors in September according to Comscore.
This was up 41% from 29.4 million in August and an increase of 78% year-on-year from 23.3 million in September 2023.
By way of comparison The Guardian had 34.8 million visitors on desktop and mobile in September according to Comscore while the Daily Mail had 32.1 million. The Guardian first launched its US digital edition in 2007 while Mail Online opened its first US newsroom in Los Angeles in 2010 then its American headquarters in New York in 2012.
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Of the British outlets to expand into the US more recently, The Sun had 19.1 million uniques, the Express had 10.3 million and the Mirror had 8.7 million.
The US Sun launched in 2020 but was forced to make editorial redundancies in the US in September, saying it needed to "reset the strategy and resize the team to secure the long term, sustainable future for The Sun’s business in the US" amid changes from Google and Facebook that have hit many sites hard. The two Reach titles launched their US titles early last year.
The Independent also shared Comscore data for leading US newspaper websites for September as follows: The New York Times (81.8 million), USA Today (76.9 million), New York Post (72.2 million) and The Washington Post (51.3 million).
Audience data can markedly fluctuate from month to month but The Independent sees its September Comscore data as a major milestone on its journey since going digital-only in 2016.
It now hopes to harness its recent growth to make a mark during the post-election period and Donald Trump's second presidency.
The Independent editor Geordie Greig on 'milestone moment'
The Independent editor Geordie Greig told Press Gazette it was a "milestone moment" from what he called the "industry gold standard" data provider Comscore.
He added that it was a "great validation of what we see as our journalistic ethics and of the reach and the richness of our content and our unbeatable data knowledge, combined with our great American team led by Louise Thomas".
Thomas joined The Independent in December from dailymail.com in the US, which she edited from 2019. Greig is also a former senior Mail figure, having edited the Mail on Sunday for six years and then the Daily Mail for three years before being fired by proprietor Lord Rothermere in November 2021.
The US is a significant part of The Independent’s 24-hour global team. Greig begins his day in the UK talking to the audience team in Delhi, before later passing the baton to New York, then Los Angeles, then back to India. Politics and crime are particularly successful content areas, he said.
"But it's essentially just us having great digital knowledge to work out how we combine journalistic nouse with digital knowledge, and we have a seemingly unbeatable team which is which is proving a success."
Speaking on Wednesday, as Donald Trump was confirmed as the next president of the US, Greig said: "We will be upping our energy and ambition to cover America even more fully. With the Trump presidency coming in that will be a source of enormous interest for our readers, but we will take a deep dive into that and find great reach and richness for content."
Asked whether he is expecting another "Trump bump", the audience boost to news media seen during his first presidency, Greig added: "Do you know what, he has a propensity to make people want to know what's going on inside America, from inside America and from outside America. And so that is good for journalism. We'll have to see whether it's good for America."
Regardless he said The Independent's growth is sustainable: "Look at our track record, we’ve grown every year since 2016."
Mail says it has 'huge, direct US audience'
Despite the September milestone some of the other British sites have bigger overall global readership. For example, according to Similarweb which estimates visits rather than visitors, The Independent had 106.3 million visits in September whereas The Guardian had 303.8 million and the Mail had 279 million. Both companies estimate traffic based on their own audience tracking methodology.
In addition the Mail highlighted to Press Gazette the fact it is still winning on engagement as opposed to pure audience reach, as well as its recent success growing on other platforms.
A DMG Media spokesperson said: "Dailymail.com remains the number one British-born publisher for engagement in the US, with substantially more page views and time spent on our website and app than any of our competitors.
"Unlike our rivals, our world-beating journalism has allowed us to grow a huge, direct US audience – built on loyalty among our long-term users.
"Our addictive content has also captivated a new generation of viewers across our multiple platforms, with 21 million Tiktok followers, 24 billion video views in 2024 so far, plus 1.2 billion video views on Youtube and 35 million podcast downloads, proving our trusted brand is able to cut through on any platform."
Press Gazette's monthly rankings of the biggest news websites use data from Similarweb, which put The Independent as the 29th site in the US in September with 39.7 million visits behind The Guardian (21st place, 67.8 million) and Daily Mail (tenth place, 113 million). In addition the BBC was in 13th spot with 100.1 million.
In the UK in September, industry-recognised data from Ipsos iris put The Independent in fifth place but almost level with Mail Online in third and The Sun in fourth (all rounded to a monthly audience reach of 18.3 million). The Guardian was ahead on 19.6 million.
The Independent's chief executive Christian Broughton told Press Gazette last month the brand had seen "really strong" revenue growth last year among its five key strategic pillars, of which its US expansion is one alongside e-commerce, video arm Independent TV, reader revenues and AI.
The US is bringing in 23% of The Independent's total revenues and has just under 20% of total staff with a team of around 46 journalists.
The seriousness of its ambitions in the US were revealed last year when it moved its then-chief executive Zach Leonard to become global chief operating officer and president, North America.
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