Traffic down at national newspaper websites

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National newspaper web traffic declined month-on-month in February, falling back after high visitor levels the previous month, according to figures released today by the Audit Bureau of Circulation Electronic .

All five UK national newspapers reporting monthly figures saw a drop in unique users visiting their sites in February. However, the long term picture was more rosy with most recording large year-on-year increases in site traffic.

The online edition of The Sun registered the biggest drop. It saw a fall of 5.97 per cent to 12,526,916 unique users after registering 13,322,535 in January. However, in recorded a 56.04 per cent year-on-year increase in traffic.

News International stable mate Times Online recorded a fall to 14,472,902 unique users from 15,087,130 in January, a 4.07 per cent drop. The Times didn't record web traffic in February last year, so a year-on-year figure was unavailable.

The websites of Daily Mail/Mail on Sunday saw the second biggest fall this month, with a drop of 4.85 per cent month-on-month registering 17,035,229 unique users in February after receiving 17,903,172 visitors the month before. It too didn't record a year-on-year figure.

Telegraph saw a monthly drop of 0.53 per cent from 12,348,706 to 12,283,835, but registered a year-on-year increase of 70.63 per cent.

Guardian.co.uk, still the UK's most popular newspaper website, saw traffic fall a marginal 0.96 per cent - gaining 19,519,923 uniques in February after getting 19,708,711 the previous month. Year-on-year it increased traffic 41.85 per cent.

It also had the largest domestic audience as 8,270,941 of its users came from the UK.

Times Online was close behind with 5,247,900, swiftly followed by The Sun 5,097,872. Mail websites had 4,679,136 UK users last month and The Telegraph 4,990,161.