February 26, 2014

Kent Messenger is fastest growing regional newspaper group online – full ABC breakdown

The Kent Messenger Group has almost doubled its online audience over the past twelve months according to the latest ABCs.

The family-owned newspaper group reported almost one million unique monthly browsers between July and December 2013 – a year-on-year increase of 93.9 percent.

Welcoming the figures, KM Group editorial director Ian Carter said: “We believe these figures show that you can rapidly develop your digital portfolio whilst maintaining high-quality print titles.

"Our newspapers are a hugely important part of our portfolio, and we are unique in having launched two successful paid-for titles in the past two years, but these figures show we are rapidly

changing our business to meet the needs of our audience.
"Our online and print audience, combined with our network of kmfm radio stations, give us unrivalled penetration across Kent."

Local World also praised the latest ABC figures which showed a year-on-year increase of 45.4 percent for unique daily browsers across the group. Between July and December 2013 an average of 622,201 people logged on to the company’s websites compared with 428,001 in 2012.

Lisa Gordon, Corporate Development Director, Local World said: “We have built strong and consistent momentum in our digital audience growth through a focus on the quality of our content and the user experience, with the launch of the branded title websites across the portfolio in the last six months following the closure of the ThisIs network. We are now deploying the same focused approach to our print products to ensure our brands – in both digital and print – are the strongest in their markets.”

In Scotland the Herald and Times group said digital revenue had grown by 19 per cent over the financial year ending December 2013.

Managing director Tim Blott said: “The changing face of news consumption is making platforms less relevant than the content they deliver.

“Doom and gloom stories of newspapers’ demise are way off the mark. It’s time to focus on revenue and audience growth across all platforms and drop the commentators’ outdated preoccupation with print”.

Kent Messenger had the fastest growing web traffic of any local newspaper group, followed by Local World:

Download full ABC regional press digital data here (with title by title breakdown)