The Sun has suffered its first fall in web traffic since moving to relax its paywall as its site saw average daily visitors fall by 14% to 1.1 million in September.
News UK’s website, which decided to relax its paywall and resume official traffic measurement in July, has now slipped back behind Express.co.uk which fell by just 0.03% month on month to 1.2 million average daily visitors.
The Sun is likely to have been a victim of the annual slump that hits many national titles following the end of the traffic surge in August surrounding the football transfer window.
Worst hit were the Daily Star, which saw average daily visitors fall 35%, and Metro, which dropped 33.9%.
The Mirror saw daily traffic to its national websites fall by almost 9% to 3,894,176.
“A month-on-month drop from August to September was expected at end of the football transfer window, which is always one of our busiest times,” said Pete Picton, editorial director for Mirror Online.
There was good news for The Guardian (up 11.28%) and the Independent (up 10.32%), fuelled by interest in stories such as the discovery of running water on Mars and the super blood moon.
“September’s record digital ABC figures mark another fantastic milestone for the Guardian,” said David Pemsel, chief executive of Guardian Media Group.
MailOnline 13,365,390 (-2.46%)
theguardian.com 8,370,243 (+11.28%)
Telegraph 4,419,480 (+0.11%)
Mirror Group Nationals 3,894,176 (-8.77%)
The Independent 2,780,560 (+10.32%)
Express.co.uk 1,213,037 (-0.03%)
The Sun 1,108,861 (-14.04%)
Metro 925,535 (-33.9%)
Dailystar.co.uk 570,609 (-35%)
Evening Standard 410,250 (-3.32%)
