It was mixed blessings for the UK's national newspaper websites in December with Metro.co.uk seeing traffic dip by a third month on month after a relaunch, while the Daily Mirror and Independent reported double-digit growth.
Daily Mail & General Trust-owned Metro.co.uk reported a 33.69% month-on-month slump in daily unique browsers to 211,537 in December.
The fall in monthly browsers was nearly as precipitous, down 32.24% to 5,227,151, according to the latest Audit Bureau of Circulations figures published on Thursday.
DMGT blamed the slump on the knock-on effect of the website relaunch on 5 December, which aims to make Metro.co.uk more mobile friendly.
"Following the re-launch of our fully responsive mobile optimised Metro.co.uk, we've seen a fluctuation in traffic as is normal with any redesign of this size," said Jamie Walters, production development director at Metro.co.uk.
It is understood the publisher had expected a fall of about 30% and that traffic has bounced back in January with a surge in mobile usage of Metro.co.uk. Trinity Mirror's website network suffered a 30% month-on-month traffic dip when it relaunched early in 2012.
Metro.co.uk's traffic is expected to take until March to return to pre-relaunch levels.
The biggest riser in December was Independent.co.uk, which grew daily unique browsers by 13.78% month on month to 970,899. Monthly unique browsers rose 18.9% to 21,251,877.
Mirror Group Digital, the website network that includes Mirror.co.uk, 3am.co.uk and MirrorFootball.co.uk, boosted monthly unique browsers 11.88% to 18,488,370. Daily unique browsers rose 7.8% to 859,318.
Guardian News & Media's website network, theguardian.com, which includes MediaGuardian, reported a 7.05% decline in unique daily browsers to 3,681,821. Monthly browsers fell 2.77% to 68,612,729.
Telegraph.co.uk also lost traction, with a 5.65% fall in daily users to 2,810,393, monthly users fell 1.67% to 56,624,847.
There was a small amount of growth for Sun.co.uk, monthly users rose 1.45% to 24,635,117 and daily browsers 0.13% to 1,562,470.
Mail Online grew monthly browsers by 1.67% to 114,037,081, although daily browsers dipped by 0.99% to 7,038,933.
Mail Online
Daily average browsers: 7,038,933
Month-on-month change: -0.99%
Year-on-year change: +45.49%
Monthly browsers: 114,037,081
Month-on-month change: +1.67%
Year-on-year change: +35.48%
theguardian.com
Daily average browsers: 3,681,821
Month-on-month: -7.05%
Year-on-year: +25.36%
Monthly browsers: 68,612,729
Month-on-month: -2.77%
Year-on-year: N/A
Telegraph.co.uk
Daily average browsers: 2,810,393
Month-on-month: -5.65%
Year-on-year: +30.35%
Monthly browsers: 56,624,847
Month-on-month: -1.67%
Year-on-year: +32.61%
Sun.co.uk
Daily average browsers: 1,562,470
Month-on-month: +0.13%
Year-on-year: +16.68%
Monthly browsers: 24,635,117
Month-on-month: +1.45%
Year-on-year: +11.31%
Independent.co.uk
Daily average browsers: 970,899
Month-on-month: +13.78%
Year-on-year: +28%
Monthly browsers: 21,251,877
Month-on-month: +18.90%
Year-on-year: +34.22%
Mirror Group Digital
Daily average browsers: 859,318
Month-on-month: +7.80%
Year-on-year: +18.26%
Monthly browsers: 18,488,370
Month-on-month: +11.88%
Year-on-year: +13.35%
Metro.co.uk
Daily average browsers: 211,537
Month-on-month: -33.69%
Year-on-year change: -36.97%
Monthly browsers: 5,227,151
Month-on-month: -32.24%
Year-on-year: -36.46%
Standard.co.uk
Daily average browsers: 143,397
Month-on-month change: -8.53%
Year-on-year: +10.02%
Monthly browsers: 3,305,987
Month-on-month change: -2.41%
Year-on-year: +3.34%
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