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The Irish Times website - Ireland.com - has increase traffic by a third despite the introduction of a pay wall preventing anyone other than subscribers access to the majority of its content.

According to ABCe figures Ireland's most popular news website registered 17.2 million page views in March - an increase of 32 per cent from its previous audit in March, 2005.

The number of unique users had also increased to 1,185,096 from a figure of 858,502 two years before.

The increase can be attributed to site improvements as well as the rapid take up of broadband in Ireland in the two years since its traffic was last measured and the increased interest in the site from an international community of ex-patriots.

In recent months the site has also made some of its content available freely. However, the introduction of a subscription model that limits use of the site, since its last audit, will have reduced its potential reach.

Deirdre Veldon, Ireland.com editor, said: "[Readers were] responding well to our recent moves to make new areas of the site free to access, while we continue to develop a large cohort of loyal subscribers to premium content.

"The figures reflect extremely well on the quality of the content and services provided and are a huge validation of the people who work at The Irish Times and ireland.com."

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ireland | broadband | the irish times | deirdre veldon |

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