Mail Online becomes most read web newspaper

Mail Online is the most read national newspaper on the web, overtaking both Telegraph.co.uk and Guardian.co.uk, according to the latest ABCE figures.

Mail Online had 18.7m unique visitors during May, up by 3.7% on the previous month, moving ahead of Telegraph.co.uk, with 18.4m unique visitors, and Guardian.co.uk, with 18.3m users.

Both sites saw a fall in visitors in May, with the Telegraph down by 0.8% and Guardian falling by 1.2%.

Elsewhere, News International titles Times Online and The Sun.co.uk saw figures of 15.8m and 14.9m respectively, while The Independent saw its traffic figures audited for the first time, hitting 6.5m uniques.

Bill Swanson, MD for Independent New Media, said that the newspaper was happy with the response.

"It won't stop here. We're already putting in place a range of new functions and services on the site to further improve engagement with our audience," said Swanson.

www.nma.co.uk | Will Cooper | 2008-06-19