National newspaper websites failed to capitalise on the general election to the same extent as BBC News online, according to the latest ABCs.
But the Telegraph attracted a record 17m unique browers on 3 May, including 10.6m on mobile devices, mainly thanks to its blog coverage of a boxing match between Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao. This was the single best day of any national newspaper website in the month.
The BBC's own figures show that the news site recorded 18.1m unique browsers on voting day, 7 May, and 28.3m the next day. It claimed that 19.3m of the unique users on 8 May went exclusively to its Election 2015 content.
These figues are higher than any of the audited numbers provided by ABC for newspaper websites on those days.
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The biggest newspaper website, Mail Online, recorded 13.8m average unique browsers throughout the month, up 25.6 per cent year on year, and peaked on 5 May at 15.5m but dipped to 13.7m on 8 May – the day of BBC News's record traffic.
On the same day The Guardian's website attracted 9.9m, which was its best day of a month in which it averaged 7.5m.
The Telegraph website recorded an average unique daily browser count of 4.9m during the month, and 6.9m on 8 May.
The BBC figures were presented at a London School of Economics event by BBC News online editor Steve Herrmann.
How the biggest newspaper websites compared with BBC News's election week performance
Note: Newspaper figures are from ABC, BBC figures are its own
| Election week unique browsers in millions | BBC News | Mail Online | Guardian | Telegraph | Mirror |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4 May | 14 | 15.5 | 8.1 | 6.7 | 5 |
| 5 May | 14.1 | 15.5 | 8.3 | 5.3 | 4.4 |
| 6 May | 16 | 14.9 | 8.4 | 4.8 | 4.9 |
| Polling day | 18.1 | 14.2 | 8.8 | 5.6 | 4 |
| 8 May | 28.3 | 13.7 | 9.9 | 6.9 | 4.7 |
| 9 May | 12.8 | 12.1 | 6.9 | 3.7 | 3.9 |
| 10 May | 12.3 | 12.8 | 7 | 3.8 | 4.9 |
The Mirror's website was the best performing national in terms of year-on-year change, up 77.4 per cent.
Of the Trinity Mirror regional sites included in the ABC count, the Manchester Evening News was the best performing, up 130 per cent to 620,275, and has now overtaken the Daily Star website.
National newspaper website figures for May 2015 – source ABC
| Website | Average daily unique users, May 2015 | Month-on-month % change | Year-on-year % change |
|---|---|---|---|
| MailOnline | 13,812,919 | 1.27 | 25.57 |
| theguardian.com | 7,504,946 | 4.17 | 37.48 |
| Trinity Mirror Group | 6,075,946 | 14.24 | 79.78 |
| Telegraph | 4,907,466 | 22.58 | 52.31 |
| Mirror Group Nationals | 4,347,126 | 16.33 | 77.38 |
| The Independent | 2,637,959 | 13.11 | 60.07 |
| Trinity Mirror Regional Network | 1,992,949 | 12.29 | |
| Metro | 1,453,532 | 11.16 | 18.74 |
| express.co.uk | 839,410 | 7.49 | 48.03 |
| Manchester Evening News | 620,275 | 24.55 | 129.93 |
| dailystar.co.uk | 580,168 | 14.12 | 22.54 |
| Evening Standard | 443,465 | 13.3 | 75.05 |
| Liverpool Echo | 428,421 | 8.85 | 96.95 |
| Wales Online | 220,597 | -0.4 | 25.52 |
| Birmingham Mail | 203,855 | 10.23 | 80.2 |
| Newcastle Chronicle | 195,527 | 6.76 | 75.8 |
| Teesside Evening Gazette | 100,883 | 26.18 | 123.16 |
| Daily Post (Wales) | 60,499 | 11.31 | |
| Coventry Telegraph | 53,964 | 9.73 | 23.24 |
| Huddersfield Daily Examiner | 49,828 | 8.61 | |
| The Journal | 14,654 | 4.25 | |
| Visiter.co.uk | 10,513 |
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