Regional newspaper ABCes: Johnston Press network takes top spot in web traffic report

Johnston Press' network of regional newspaper websites attracted the most unique users in the first six months of 2009, the latest figures from the Audit Bureau of Circulations Electronic (ABCe) have suggested.

The publisher, which is responsible for more than 323 websites, recorded 6,864,820 monthly unique users on average, according to the ABCe's six-monthly report for regional newspaper groups.

Johnston Press is one of seven UK regional publishers to sign up for the bureau's six-monthly web traffic audit, launched in February this year.

Johnston Press' top performing site reported over the six-month period was Scotsman.com, which attracted an average of 2,172,598 unique users a month - a 6.6 per cent rise compared with figures for the last six months of 2008.

The latest report suggested strong performances in average monthly unique users for Newsquest's Swindon Advertiser (up 48.6 per cent) and Daily Echo (up 30.8 per cent), while unique users to Northcliffe's thisisbristol grew by 53.2 per cent when compared with the previous six months.

As a group, Iliffe News and Media posted the biggest rise in unique user figures to its websites - up 41.4 per cent to 551,865.

GMG Regionals
Average daily unique users: 102,768
Average monthly unique users: 2,063,683
Top performing site:

Iliffe Digital
Average daily unique users: 31,289
Average monthly unique users: 551,865

Johnston Press
Average daily unique users: 388,253
Average monthly unique users: 6,864,820

Newsquest
Average daily unique users: 286,252
Average monthly unique users: 5,152,176

Northcliffe Media
Average daily unique users: 246,302
Average monthly unique users: 3,597,283

Trinity Mirror Regional
Average daily unique users: 266,028
Average monthly unique users: 5,038,916

Midlands News Association
Average daily unique users: 36,865
Average monthly unique users: 630,135

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