The Guardian website eclipsed 100 million monthly browsers for the first time in last month, boosted by traffic related to stories about the search for the missing Malaysia Airways plane.
According to figures from the Audit Bureau of Circulation, however, Associated Newspapers, which publishes the Mail Online, remains, by some way, the largest digital media platform in the UK.
The Mail Online reported an 8 per cent increase in monthly unique browsers to 179.8 million, while average daily uniques rose by 0.22 per cent to 11.27 million.
The figures show guardian.com website network - which includes MediaGuardian - hit a new record of 102.3 million monthly unique browsers in March, up 12 per cent on the previous month
Coverage of the missing MH370 flight on the Guardian’s site reached 12 million unique browsers in March while the stories on Ukraine received 4.6 million browsers.
Theguardian.com is the second UK newspaper website to top 100 million monthly browsers. Mail Online passed the milestone during the London Olympics month, August 2012.
“March has been a fantastic month for us,” Tanya Cordrey, Guardian News and Media’s chief digital officer, told Journalism.co.uk. “It’s been incredibly interesting to see the impact of our reporting of the missing Malaysian Airways flight MH370 on our traffic internationally.”
Mirror Group Nationals, which includes Mirror.co.uk, recorded 51.1 monthly browsers, up 8.4 per cent on the previous month.
Independent.co.uk’s monthly browsers rose 24 per cent to just under 37 million last month, Telegraph.co.uk increased its monthly browsers by 20 per cent to 72.2 million.
