The Guardian website has today moved to its new global domain, www.theguardian.com.
The move comes after The Guardian, which has offices in the UK, United States and Australia, claimed global traffic of 40.5m unique visitors in June 2013 (comScore figures).
When readers go to the website, they will be automatically directed to the correct domain – theguardian.com/uk, theguardian.com/us or theguardian.com/au.
Guardian News and Media editor-in-chief Alan Rusbridger said: "At the Guardian, we've long been at the forefront of digital innovation. Our first digital presence was unveiled to the world in 1995 and within four years we'd launched our full website, Guardian Unlimited, which became guardian.co.uk in 2008.
"Back in May we announced that we had acquired www.theguardian.com, and I'm delighted that we have now officially moved to our new home, beginning the next chapter of our digital journey.”
Rusbridger said that the website’s NSA revelations last month saw it attact more hits from the US than the UK for the first time last month.
Opened in 2011, The Guardian’s New York office now has 57 employees, including 29 editorial staff. According to The Guardian, its US traffic, which represents a third of the title’s overall audience, was up 55 per cent year on year in the latest comScore figures for June 2013.
The Guardian set up an office in Sydney in May this year and, according to internal figures, received 20m page views in June 2013, up 10 per cent month on month and 57 per cent year on year.
Guardian Media Group chief executive Andrew Miller said: "This is a time of extraordinary innovation, growth and opportunity for the Guardian and we are fully embracing a digital future. With offices in London, New York City and Sydney, our new global domain brings together a global audience across all time zones, providing them with a 24/7 source of news and engagement.
"This in turn will open up enormous commercial possibilities for us in markets around the world, enabling us to offer our partners and advertisers increased access to our growing global audience."
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