UK Internet traffic to newspaper websites reached its highest level in over two years last week off the back of a number of big news stories. For the week ending 26 January 2008, 1.48% of all UK Internet visits went to websites in Hitwise’s News and Media – Print category, which includes the websites of national, local and international newspapers, as well as print magazines and trade publications.

Business and economic stories captured most of the headlines last week, and interest in these stories was a major contributor to the increase in traffic to newspaper websites. With stock markets tumbling around the globe, UK internet searches for ‘ftse’ increased by 223% last week, while searches for ‘financial news’ doubled. This concern about the economy was compounded by the revelation later in the week that Jerome Kerviel, a trader at Societe Generale, had lost the French bank a record breaking £3.7bn. Searches for ‘societe generale’ quadrupled as a result, while traffic to the Financial Times website (www.ft.com) increased by 18%, making it the sixth most visited News and Media – Print website in the UK last week. Traffic to the UK’s leading business newspaper has now doubled since it changed its online subscription model in November 2007.

The most visited newspaper website in the UK for the week ending 26 January was The Daily Mail (www.dailymail.co.uk), which achieved a market share of 4.97% of UK Internet visits to News and Media – Print websites. It was joined in the top 5 by The Sun (www.thesun.co.uk; 4.47%), Times Online (www.timesonline.co.uk; 4.31%), Guardian Unlimited (www.guardian.co.uk; 3.30%), and The Telegraph (www.telegraph.co.uk; 3.18%). Of these The Sun saw the biggest increase in traffic last week, thanks in part to the hosting of a video that showed pop star Amy Winehouse allegedly taking illegal drugs.

The tragic death of Hollywood actor Heath Ledger also generated a significant volume of UK Internet traffic for newspapers last week. ‘heath ledger’ was the fifth most popular search term sending UK Internet traffic to News and Media – Print websites for the 4 weeks ending 26 January 2008, and was the highest ranking term that wasn’t also the name of a newspaper or magazine. Interest in the actor also drove UK Internet traffic to the websites of overseas newspapers. The New York Times (www.nytimes.com) website was the eighth most visited News and Media – Print website in the UK for the week ending 26 January, while the New York Post (www.nypost.com) more than doubled its share of UK Internet visits.

Newspapers in Ledger’s native Australia also saw an increase in UK visits last week, in particular The Age (www.theage.com.au; ‘heath ledger’ was the number one search term sending traffic to its site for the 4 weeks ending 26 January 2008), The Melbourne Herald Sun (www.heraldsun.com.au; ‘heath ledger’ was the second most popular search term), and The Sydney Morning Herald (www.smh.com.au; ‘heath ledger was the number one search term).

Robin Goad

Robin Goad is Research Director, Hitwise UK. This piece was originally published on Hitwise analyst blog here.

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