More than five million users visited the site in January 2005 - a year-on-year increase of 56 per cent. But the news site would not comment on its flourishing web audience, suggesting further concern about its declining print readership.
In September 2004, the Observer claimed Sun managers had wanted to cut most editorial content from the site to drive readers back to the newspaper.
Sun Online editor Pete Picton later described the story as 'misleading' and said that no content had been cut.
The Sun is still the biggest selling UK newspaper by some way, with daily sales of 3.3 million. However, despite its 'record' web traffic the site still attracts fewer users than Guardian Unlimited.
UK news site readership:
| guardian.co.uk | 9,866,609 users | November 2004 |
| telegraph.co.uk | 3,523,681 users | September 2004 |
| the-sun.co.uk | 3,233,092 users* | January 2004 |
| scotsman.com | 2,348,414 users | August 2004 |
| dailymail.co.uk | 657,045 users | November 2004 |
Data from figures listed on the ABCE website
* CORRECTION - 14 March 2005: This figure is from January 2004, not January 2005 as previously published
More news from dotJournalism:
Observer story slated
Clouds gather over Sun Online
Murdoch tops Guardian media power list
Related articles
- Rebekah Brooks: Fraser Brown story sourced via legitimate means
- Liveblog: Rebekah Brooks's evidence at the Leveson inquiry
- Rebekah Brooks: Murdoch and I disagreed on 'quite a few things'
- PCC receives more than 100 complaints over Sun headline
- Sun journalists to be trained in mental health reporting after complaint
Senior Desk Editor - International News Desk
