The popularity of the online versions of the UK's leading national newspapers has increased at three times the rate of overall UK internet growth, a survey has concluded.

According to Nielsen/NetRatings UK NetView home and work data study, the number of Britons visiting at least one of its Top 10 ranked national newspaper sites grew from 5.6 million in December 2006 to 7.4 million in August 2007 - a growth of roughly 30 per cent.

"The leading UK national papers online have achieved excellent growth since the start of the year," said Alex Burmaster, European internet analyst, Nielsen/NetRatings.

"As a group, they've experienced 30 per cent growth which is particularly impressive considering the online audience itself has grown by just more than 9 per cent in the same period.

"This means, as a group, the leading nationals online are growing at three times the rate of overall UK internet growth."

Of this group, the research concluded that the Daily Mail has experienced the greatest growth (117 per cent - see Fig.1), more than doubling its audience from just under 0.7 million in December 2006 to over 1.4 million in August 2007.
 
The Telegraph was the only other newspaper site in the list to at least double its audience - growing by 106 per cent from 1.0 million to around 2.1 million.

Fig.1


More time was spent on the Sun (53 million minutes) than any other UK newspaper, followed by the Daily Mail (49 million minutes), the study said.

Among the Top 10, the Daily Mail (34 minutes) and The Sun (26 minutes) also had the highest average times per visitor.

The data for the study, Nielsen said, was collected from more than 40,000 UK Internet users whose online behaviour is tracked and measured on a continuous and ongoing basis.