Telegraph passes Guardian as the UK's most visited newspaper website

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Telegraph.co.uk has for the first time replaced Guardian.co.uk as the UK's most popular newspaper website, according to monthly traffic figures released today by the Audit Bureau of Circulation Electronic (ABCE).

After seeing a record level of unique users visit its website in March, the Telegraph again grew its month-on-month traffic.

It registered a 9.45 per cent rise on that March figure to get a record 18,646,112 uniques visiting the site last month. Year-on-year the Telegraph recorded growth of 153.37 per cent from its April 2007 figure of 7,359,312 unique users.

Achieving top spot comes after a period of great upheaval at the Telegraph as it fundamentally restructured to align itself for a future of joint print and digital publication.

The newspaper moved to new headquarters in Victoria in late 2006. from its old home at Canary Wharf with new editor Will Lewis announcing the paper would be the first in the UK to move to an integrated newsroom to make a more dedicated and systematic approach to web publishing.

Regular traffic growth since then culminated with last month's reporting of its large traffic leap. The Telegraph attributed its good figures in March to a string of major news stories - particularly around the credit crunch - and in depth coverage of the Budget, for which it built a micro-site and commissioned exclusive videos on Telegraph TV.

In a statement to the press, Edward Roussel, Digital Editor, Telegraph Media Group, similarly attributed

April's growth , adding that the climax of the football season and the Telegraph’s strategy of combining text with video had helped boost audience.

However, speculation was rife last month that the Telegraph's growth in traffic may, in part, be attributed to a change in the technology it used to measure its web traffic.

ABCE details a list of approved measurement tools for gathering traffic data that includes devices supplied by WebTrends and HBX.

Guardian.co.uk reported that prior to the publication of last month's figures the Telegraph switched to the WebTrends 7 system from HBX SiteCatalyst.

The article suggested that Telegraph may have inadvertently been under-reporting figures prior to the switch because of the technology it employed did not track some web pages.

Sources at other newspaper groups told Journalism.co.uk that they had experienced a similar effect, but in reverse, with significant falls in web traffic when they moved away from WebTrends technology to adopt different web measurement tools.

Timing its announcement well, the Joint Industry Committee for Web Standards (JICWEBS) today said that as part of its ongoing role overseeing web metrics and digital channel measurement standards it would be implementing a review of the analytics methodologies used by national newspapers to supply ABCE with data for its audits.

Although it added that all audited figures for national newspapers online certified by ABCE are in full compliance with current industry agreed standards.

Whatever the reason for the growth in traffic the Telegraph ended Guardian.co.uk's long reign as the UK newspaper website gathering the greatest number of unique users.

The Guardian registered a figure of 18,546,017 unique users last month, a dip of 0.84 per cent from its March figure of 18,703,811 that ended the lead in online readership it had held since ABCe started measuring website traffic seven years ago.

However, year-on-year it recorded a healthy 22.25 per cent growth, up from 15,170,348 unique users in April 2007.

Both Guardian.co.uk and Telegraph.co.uk were only marginally ahead of third placed Mail Online.

It registered further growth (0.38 per cent) from its March figure of 17,972,153 unique users to record 18,039,943 last month. Year-on-year it recorded a leap in unique users of 92.99 per cent.

As part of a large online investment programme The Mail has spent the last six weeks live testing a new website design that will be implemented this month as it hopes to further build its audience.

News International’s titles growth in web traffic seem to have hit a plateau in recent months.

However, the Sun grew the number of unique visitors to its website to 14,068,523 last month, up from 13,791,450 - a rise of 2.01 per cent. In April 2007, it recorded 8,235,925 visitors, so recorded a year-on-year growth of 70.82.

User figures for Times Online fell slightly last month to 15,406,254 from its March figure of 16,083,991 - a drop of 4.21 per cent. Year-on-year it grew by 72.99 per cent.

Of the six national newspapers reporting monthly traffic figures Mirror.co.uk registered the lowest number of unique users. It recorded 4,277,502 in April, down from 4,403,869 - a drop of 2.87 per cent. The Mirror did not regularly report traffic figures prior to 2008 so a year-on-year comparison was not available.