Most popular websites for news in the UK: Monthly top 50 listing

Money Saving Expert website, 26 September 2023

The Independent and Money Saving Expert were the only top ten newsbrands to buck the trend by growing year-on-year in November, according to Press Gazette's latest monthly ranking.

Visits to ITV were up 20% year-on-year as the brand reached an audience of 15.5 million people, while visits to the Daily Mail were up 17% to 24.9 million, according to data from Ipsos iris.

Reach for The Independent was up 2% year-on-year as the brand reached a UK audience of 21.8 million people. Consumer advice newsbrand Money Saving Expert was meanwhile up 17% to 24.9 million as it re-entered the top ten in tenth place, according to data from Ipsos iris.

The Telegraph (13.8 million), ranked ten in October, fell outside the top ten to eleventh place in November.

The remainder of the top ten biggest newsbrands by number of visits saw audiences fall year-on-year. The Sun saw the largest fall (audience of 23.5 million, down 17% year-on-year), followed by ITV (14.9 million, down 16%), the Metro (14.4 million, down 14%) and the Mirror (22 million, down 14%).

Month-on-month changes were less sharp amongst this group of top ten sites. The Sun's audience month-on-month remained mostly unchanged, while audience to the Mirror was down 4% compared to October, while audience to the Metro was down 2%.

Among the whole top 50, GB News, which switched to a new .com URL earlier this year, saw the largest audience growth by far, with audience up 472% year-on-year to 8 million. This represents the eighth month in a row for which GB News has been the fastest-growing newsbrand in the UK top 50, being a relatively new website.

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Second-fastest growing were two Reach newsbrands - Gloucestershire Live (3.1 million, up 161% year-on-year) and Bristol Live (5.2 million, up 132% year-on-year). Earlier this year, Reach closed 13 of its new regional sites due to cutbacks at the publisher.

The BBC was again the UK's biggest newsbrand by audience size (38.3 million visitors, reaching 77% of the UK online population aged over 15), while the Sun narrowly beat Mail Online (23.4 million) to come in second place given Mail Online's larger month-on-month audience fall in November (down 6.1%). The Sun has historically been in second place behind the BBC, although Mail Online was ahead of the News UK brand in May, June, August, September and October.

It should be noted that Ipsos' data measures the total unduplicated number of people who used a brand's websites and apps in a given month and includes all traffic, not necessarily just news. Reach and minutes for brands such as the BBC and ITV, which have a strong entertainment offering in addition to news content, will therefore be higher.

Manchester Evening News, which fell out of the top ten earlier this year, ranked two places higher than in October, coming in thirteenth (audience of 12 million, down 39% year-on-year), swapping positions with Birmingham Live (audience of 12.5 million, rank fourteen).

Of the ten sites with the biggest year-on-year falls, eight were owned by Reach. They included My London (audience of 2.8 million, down 60% year-on-year), Nottinghamshire Live (2.6 million, down 56%), and In Your Area (3.2 million, down 43%). Several Reach newsbrands were among those with the biggest year-on-year falls in October as well.

To create this top-50 list, Press Gazette used Ipsos' ranking of the top online brand groups and selected the 50 biggest that Press Gazette considers to be based in journalistic content. Our list covers both consumer and industry (B2B) media. You can consult our list of 100 brands and read more about our criteria here.

Brands such as Apple and Google, while well-known names in news, are excluded from our list given the wide reach of their non-news content. Google News and Apple News are not reported by Ipsos as separate entities in brand level data.

The BBC was once again at the top of the table for most time spent with its content (9.5 billion minutes in November), followed by Mail Online (1.5 billion minutes) and The Guardian (1.1 billion minutes). All three saw slight month-on-month falls with time spent with their content.

The BBC and Mail Online also ranked first and second for page views, with the BBC reaching 3.1 billion page views and Mail Online 517.2 million.

Ipsos iris replaced Comscore as the industry-recognised standard in 2021. Ipsos iris data is partly derived from a panel of 10,000 people aged 15 and over that is designed to be nationally representative. The participants have meters installed across 25,000 personal devices to passively measure website and app usage.

This is combined with data from participating websites that are tagged so all devices visiting the site can be identified and logged.

October 2023

ITV and Mail Online were the fastest-growing top ten newsbrands by audience size in October, according to Press Gazette's latest monthly ranking.

Among the ten biggest newsbrands, The Independent (audience of 21 million, up 8% year-on-year), The Guardian (22 million, up 2%) and the BBC (38.3 million, up 1%) also grew last month.

In September, ITV was the only top ten newsbrand by audience size to see a year-on-year audience boost. It is possible that the wider growth seen last month might be linked to an increase in interest in the news given the Israel-Hamas conflict began on 7 October.

However the remaining five top ten biggest newsbrands saw audience declines with The Telegraph (13.8 million, down 24%) and The Sun (23.6 million, down 18%) recording the largest falls.

Among the whole top 50, GB News, which switched to a new .com URL earlier this year, saw the largest audience growth by far, with audience up 758% year-on-year to 6 million. This represents the seventh month in a row for which GB News has been the fastest-growing newsbrand in the UK top 50. While the additional URL means that not all growth will be organic, the brand nevertheless is seeing a large growth in its online audience.

Second fastest growing for the second month in a row was youth-focused brand Unilad, up 245% year-on-year to 3.8 million.

Reach's Bristol Live was third-fastest growing with audience up 46% to 4.7 million, knocking last month's third-fastest growing newsbrand, Global's LBC into fourth place (3.6 million people, up 36% year-on-year).

Fifth fastest-growing was Time Out (up 27% year-on-year to 4.9 million).

The BBC was again the UK's biggest newsbrand by audience size (38.3 million visitors, reaching 77% of the UK online population aged over 15), while Mail Online was once again in second place ahead of The Sun in third. The Sun has historically been in second place behind the BBC, although Mail Online was also ahead of the News UK brand in May, June, August and September.

ITV came in eighth place. The broadcaster had lost its top ranking to Money Saving Expert for one month exceptionally in August, but as of September has regained its top ten ranking. Money Saving Expert was ranked eleventh in October.

Manchester Evening News continued to slip down the table after dropping out of the top ten earlier this year. It was ranked fifteenth in October (audience of 11.9 million, down 33% year-on-year). MEN is no longer the largest regional newsbrand in our ranking, as Birmingham Live was ranked thirteenth (audience of 12.5 million).

Liverpool Echo (7.8 million, down 40%), Chronicle Live (5.5 million, down 39%) and My London (2.9 million, down 48%) - all Reach newsbrands - saw the biggest year-on-year falls in the top 50.

The BBC was once again at the top of the table for most time spent with its content (9.7 billion minutes in October), followed by Mail Online (1.7 billion minutes) and The Guardian (1.2 billion minutes).

The BBC and Mail Online also ranked first and second for page views, with the BBC reaching 3.4 billion page views and Mail Online 559.9 million.

This is combined with data from participating websites that are tagged so all devices visiting the site can be identified and logged.

September 2023

GB News was the fastest-growing news website in the UK for the sixth consecutive month, according to Press Gazette's monthly ranking.

Visits to gbnews.com were up 650% year-on-year as the brand reached an audience of 6.2 million people in September - although its audience was down from August's total of 6.6 million.

GB News switched to a new .com URL earlier this year. While the additional URL means that not all growth will be organic, the brand nevertheless is seeing a large growth in its online audience.

It was followed by youth-focused brand Unilad, sister brand to Ladbible. Unilad.com's audience was up 335% year-on-year to 3.2 million.

Third fastest-growing was Global's speech radio station LBC (up 87% year-on-year to 4.2 million). In the latest RAJAR results, published on Thursday, LBC also grew its radio listenership slightly in the third quarter of the year, with London listenership up 2% and its UK-wide audience up by 1%.

Bristol Live (4.7 million people, up 41%), Screenrant (3 million, up 32%), Radio Times (7.3 million, up 29%), Forbes (3.5 million, up 11%) and ITV (14.8 million, up 5%) were the remaining five brands that saw any year-on-year growth in September.

ITV was the only top ten newsbrand by audience size to see a year-on-year audience boost in another slow month for the UK's biggest newsbrands. Among the top ten, Metro (14.6 million, down 26% year-on-year) and The Telegraph (13.5 million, down 27%) saw the biggest drops, each shedding more than a quarter of their audiences.

The third-largest newsbrand in the top 50 by audience, The Sun, also saw a large drop (audience of 22.8 million, down 19%).

Mail Online and BBC fared better, seeing year-on-drops in the low single digits. Audience to Mail Online was down 2% year-on-year, while visitors to the BBC were down 3%.

The BBC was again the UK's biggest newsbrand by audience size (37.7 million visitors), while Mail Online retained its second place spot having overtaken The Sun in August to become the UK's largest commercial newsbrand in our ranking (23.9 million visitors). The Sun has historically been in second place behind the BBC, although Mail Online was also ahead of the News UK brand in May and June.

Money Saving Expert, the consumer news website founded by Martin Lewis, had entered the top ten in August but fell back to eleventh place (13.2 million) in September, while ITV re-entered the top ten in eighth position.

Manchester Evening News, which dropped out of the top ten earlier this year, held on to fourteenth place (audience of 11 million), although it lost more than a quarter of its audience (28%) compared to last September.

Cosmopolitan (audience of 2.7 million, down 56% year-on-year), the i (8.2 million, down 47%) and Hello (8.4 million, down 44%) saw the biggest annual audience falls.

There was no change in the ranking for engagement, with the BBC at the top of the table again for most time spent with its content (9.6 billion minutes in September). It was followed by Mail Online (1.7 billion minutes) and The Guardian (1 billion minutes) in a top three unchanged from August.

The BBC and Mail Online also ranked one and two for page views with the BBC reaching 3.3 billion page views and Mail Online 529.9 million. The Sun, while only ranking eighth for time spent, was third for page views (260.5 million), just beating the Guardian (252.3 million).

August 2023

August marked another slow month for growth among the UK's top ten newsbrands, according to Press Gazette's monthly ranking.

Six of the biggest newsbrands by audience size saw a smaller audience in August compared to the same month last year, according to data from Ipsos iris.

However The Guardian's (rank six) audience was up 2% year-on-year to 21.6 million, while The Independent (rank four) was up 1% to 21.6 million. The BBC and Sky News saw no year-on-year change in audience.

Among the top ten newsbrands by audience size, Metro saw the biggest fall in audience for the second month in a row. The number of visitors to the DMGT-owned brand was down 26% year-on-year to 14.5 million, echoing a similar fall (28%) last month.

The Sun (down 17%), Mirror (down 13%) and The Telegraph (down 13%) also saw double-digit falls in the number of people accessing their websites and apps.

Public broadcaster the BBC remained at the top of the table for audience size (37.8 million visitors), however Mail Online overtook The Sun to become the UK's biggest commercial newsbrand in our ranking. The Sun has historically been in second place behind the BBC, although Mail Online was also ahead of the News UK brand in May and June.

Money Saving Expert, the consumer news website founded by Martin Lewis, entered the top ten in August with an audience of 14.2 million, displacing ITV into eleventh place.

It should be noted that Ipsos' data measures the total unduplicated number of people who used a brand's websites and apps in a given month and includes all traffic, not necessarily just news. Reach and minutes for brands such as the BBC and ITV which have a strong entertainment offering in addition to news content will therefore be higher.

Among the top 50 as a whole, fastest-growing was GB News (audience of 6.6 million, up 564% year-on-year), making it the fastest-growing newsbrand in the top 50 every month since April when Ipsos began tracking its new .com URL. While the additional URL means that not all growth will be organic the brand has nevertheless seen a huge surge in its online audience.

It was followed by Global's speech radio station LBC (up 115% year-on-year to 5.5 million). LBC has recently stepped up its investment in on-air talent, hiring Natasha Clark from The Sun as political editor while Emily Maitlis and Jon Sopel joined parent company Global last year from the BBC. Third was Reach's Bristol Live (3.8 million, up 112%).

Manchester Evening News, which dropped out of the top ten earlier this year, was the best-ranked regional news brand in fourteenth place (11.8 million, down 27% year-on-year).

Youth publisher Ladbible saw the biggest year-on-year audience fall in the top 50 (down 53%, audience of 4.3 million).

Looking at engagement, audiences spent most time with the BBC's content (10 billion minutes), followed by Mail Online (1.8 billion minutes) and The Guardian (1.1 billion minutes).

Despite ranking third for reach, the Sun ranked seventh for time spent with its content (453.4 million minutes).

Mail Online also scored well on time per user, with audiences spending an average of 76 minutes with its content, second only to the BBC (264 minutes).

This is combined with data from participating websites that are tagged so all devices visiting the site can be identified and logged.

July 2023

All but one of the UK's ten biggest news websites saw a year-on-year fall in traffic in July, according to Press Gazette's monthly top 50 ranking.

Among the top ten newsbrands by audience size, Metro saw the biggest fall as its audience declined by 28% year-on-year to 14.2 million, according to Ipsos iris. 

The Telegraph (13.8 million visitors, down 17%) and The Sun (24.3 million, down 13%) also saw double-digit falls in the UK audience to their websites and apps. 

ITV, which has seen regular year-on-year growth following the launch of its streaming service ITVX at the end of 2022, also saw its audience fall (15.1 million, down 4%).  

The only top ten name to buck the trend was The Guardian whose audience rose by 1% to 20.8 million. 

It follows a slow June for most of the UK's household news names when only four top ten brands recorded year-on-year audience growth.

While the BBC remained at the top of the table for audience size (37.9 million visitors), The Sun overtook Mail Online to resume its place as the UK's second biggest newsbrand in our ranking, ending Mail Online's run of being in second place in May and June.  

It should be noted that Ipsos' data measures the total unduplicated number of people who used a brand's websites and apps in a given month and includes all traffic, not necessarily just news. Reach and minutes for brands such as the BBC and ITV which have a strong entertainment offering in addition to news content will therefore be higher.

There were further changes near the top of the table compared to June, as The Telegraph dropped from ninth to tenth place and Money Saving Expert (audience of 13.4 million) fell from tenth to eleventh. Metro climbed from eleventh to ninth.

Among the top 50 as a whole, fastest-growing was GB News (audience of 6.6 million, up 545% year-on-year), making it the fastest-growing newsbrand in the top 50 every month since April when Ipsos began tracking its new .com URL. While the additional URL means that not all growth will be organic the brand has nevertheless seen a huge surge in its online audience. 

It was followed by Global-owned speech radio brand LBC, whose audience was up 109% year-on-year to 6.1 million, while third was Reach's Yorkshire Live (4.7 million, up 23%). LBC has made a series of high-profile hires, with The Sun's chief political correspondent Natasha Clark joining as its political editor this summer, while former BBC journalists Emily Maitlis and Jon Sopel joined parent company Global last year to front podcast The News Agents.

Yorkshire Live was also the only Reach regional newsbrand in the top 50 to not see a year-on-year audience decline in July. My London (audience of 3 million, down 51%) and Nottinghamshire Live (3.6 million, down 38%) recorded the largest falls among this group. 

Healthline Media, the American publisher of Medical News Today, was again the best-ranked non-UK brand (9.9 million visitors, rank 17) beating The New York Times (7 million, rank 24).

Looking at engagement, audiences spent most time with the BBC's content (10.3 billion minutes). Despite falling to third place for reach, Mail Online remained second for engagement (1.9 billion minutes). 

It was followed by three brands that all recorded strong year-on-growth in time spent. Total minutes were up 22% year-on-year at ITV (1.2 billion minutes), 30% at The Guardian (1.1 billion minutes) and 27% at Sky News (693.5 million minutes), despite the two broadcasters having a smaller audience than in July last year.

The Sun, while ranking second for reach, was seventh for engagement (469.4 million minutes).  

June 2023

Mail Online was the fastest-growing top ten newsbrand in the UK in June, according to Press Gazette's monthly top-50 ranking.

There were 24.5 million visitors to Mail Online's website and apps in June, an increase of 4% year-on-year. June was, however, a slow month for the UK's biggest news names as Mail Online was one of only four top ten brands to record growth.

The DMGT-owned brand was followed by Sky News (18.4 million, up 3% year-on-year), ITV (15.5 million, up 3%) and The Guardian (20.5 million, up 1%). ITV's growth this month was slower than recent months as the broadcaster has seen regular double-digit growth following the launch of ITVX at the end of 2022.

The remainder of the top ten saw fewer visitors in June, with The Sun (audience of 24.3 million) recording the largest fall at 13%.

Among the top 50 as a whole, fastest-growing was GB News (6.7 million, up 643%). The broadcaster switched to a .com URL earlier this year which Ipsos began tracking in April, meaning that not all growth will be organic, but the brand has nevertheless seen a huge surge in its online audience. Digital chief Geoff Marsh recently told Press Gazette that GB News intends to become one of the UK's biggest news websites.

Second-fastest growing was Global-owned talk radio brand LBC, whose audience was up 128% year-on-year (4.8 million) while third was Reuters News (4.7 million, up 23%) which remains free despite paywall plans announced in 2021 and revived earlier this year.

The BBC remains the UK's biggest newsbrand by audience size. The corporation's website and apps reached 37.7 million people in June and it was the only newsbrand to reach over half of the UK online population aged over 15 with a 75% reach.

It was followed by Mail Online (reach of 49%), The Sun (24.3 million people, 48% reach), the Mirror (22.9 million, 46% reach) and The Independent (audience of 21.1 million, 42% reach), in a top five unchanged from May.

The Guardian remained in sixth place with 20.5 million unique visitors.

Manchester Evening News (10.4 million people, rank 14) was again the best-placed regional newsbrand, although it saw a large fall in audience compared to last June (down 33%).

Healthline Media, the American publisher of Medical News Today, was the best-ranked non-UK brand (9.8 million visitors, rank 15) beating The New York Times (6.9 million, rank 24).

In addition to reach, the BBC led on engagement, with audiences spending 9.5 billion minutes with the brand in June.

Second placed was Mail Online (2 billion minutes) while in third place was The Guardian (1.1 billion minutes). The Guardian recorded another strong month for year-on-year growth in time spent with its sites and apps (up 42% in June and 38% in May).

Ipsos' data measures the total unduplicated number of people who use a brand's websites and apps, meaning not all content will be news content, which may increase the audience and time spent with brands such as ITV and BBC who also have a large non-news offering. 

May 2023

GB News was the fastest-growing newsbrand in the UK in May, according to Press Gazette's monthly top-50 ranking.

The audience for the GB News website was up 353% year-on-year to reach 7.2 million, according to data from Ipsos iris.

The broadcaster's digital chief Geoff Marsh, who joined GB News from the Express last year, recently told Press Gazette that it has a "very ambitious plan" to take on the UK's biggest news websites. (GB News adopted a dotcom URL earlier this year which Ipsos began tracking in April, therefore not all growth will be organic).

GB News was followed by Timeout which has also had a recent run of growth after going digital-only in 2022. Unique visitors to the listing and culture title were up 39% year-on-year to 4.3 million.

Among the ten biggest sites in May by audience size, ITV was the fastest-growing for the fourth month in a row with audience up 20% year-on-year to reach 14.7 million people. ITV, which launched its streaming service ITVX at the end of 2022, saw similar growth last month with its year-on-year audience growing 25% in March.

ITV was the fastest-growing large newsbrand by a big margin. Second and third fastest-growing Mail Online and Sky News grew 3% year-on-year (audience of 25.2 million and 17.9 million respectively).

Of the ten biggest sites, Metro saw the biggest fall. its audience in May was down 23% year-on-year to 13.8 million, echoing last month's double-digit fall for the DMGT-owned brand. The Mirror (audience of 23.3 million) and The Sun (25.1 million) saw sfalls of 8%.

The BBC was again the UK's biggest newsbrand by audience size. The corporation's website reached 38.3 million people in May (76% of the UK online population aged over 15). It was followed by Mail Online (reach of 50%), The Sun (50% reach), the Mirror (47% reach) and The Independent (audience of 20.8 million, 41% reach).

The Guardian fell one place to sixth (audience of 20.7 million).

Martin Lewis-run consumer news and advice website Money Saving Expert (13.2 million people) was again the best-ranked specialist newsbrand, although it dropped from 11th position in April's ranking to 13th in May.

Manchester Evening News (11.6 million people, rank 14) was again the best-placed regional newsbrand. Fellow Reach regional brands, Birmingham Live (7.9 million people), Liverpool Echo (7.5 million) and Wales Online (7.2 million) also made the top half of the table.

To create this top-50 rankingt, Press Gazette used Ipsos' ranking of the top online brand groups and selected the 50 biggest that Press Gazette considers to be based in journalistic content. Our list covers both consumer and industry (B2B) media. You can consult our list of 100 brands and read more about our criteria here.

The BBC led on engagement, with audiences spending 9.4 billion minutes with the brand in May which represents no change from April. It was again well ahead of second placed Mail Online (2.1 billion minutes) and third-placed Guardian (1.1 billion minutes), which overtook ITV this month due to a month-on-month audience boost for the newspaper publisher. Time spent with the Guardian was up 38% year-on-year.

The BBC also led for average minutes spent with its content per person per month (244 minutes). Ipsos' data however, measures the total unduplicated number of people who used a brand's websites and apps in a given month and includes all traffic, not necessarily just news. Data for brands such as the BBC and ITV which have a strong entertainment offering in addition to news content will therefore be higher.

April 2023

ITV was again the fastest-growing top ten newsbrand in the UK in April, according to Press Gazette's monthly ranking.

ITV, which launched its streaming service ITVX at the end of 2022, saw similar growth last month with its year-on-year audience growing 25% in March.

Fellow broadcaster Sky News also grew its digital audience in April with unique visitors up 9% year-on-year to 17.7 million.

The Guardian (audience of 21.5 million people, up 7%), The Telegraph (15.9 million people, up 3%) and Mail Online (24.8 million people, up 1%) were the remaining three top ten newsbrands to grow in April.

At the other end of the top ten list, Metro (14.2 million people, down 18%) saw a double-digit year-on-year fall in audience.

Among the entire top 50, fastest-growing was GB News (5.8 million people, up 469%) Three Reach regional titles made the fastest-growing list. Nottinghamshire Live was up 68% year-on-year to 4.2 million, second-fastest growing was Time Out (4.4 million, up 40%) while Good Housekeeping (4.9 million people, up 35%) was third.

Time Out, which closed its print edition last year after 54 years, has featured among the fastest-growing sites in the top 50 regularly in 2023 and led the table in March.

The other two Reach regional newsbrands among the fastest-growing list were Lancs Live (3.1 million, up 22%) and Wales Online (7.3 million, up 18%).

The BBC was unmoved from its position at the top of the ranking for audience, reaching 38.1 million people in April - equivalent to 76% of the UK online population aged over 15.

It was followed by The Sun (26.3 million people, 56% reach) and The Mirror (audience of 24.8 million, 50% reach). The Guardian, which last month knocked The Independent out of the top five, retained its fifth place ranking in April with 21.5 million visitors during the month.

Martin Lewis' consumer news and advice website Money Saving Expert (147.8 million people) was the best-ranked specialist newsbrand coming in 11th position, while Manchester Evening News (84.8 million people, rank 15) was the best-placed regional newsbrand.

For our list, we used Ipsos' ranking of the top online brand groups and selected the 50 biggest that Press Gazette considers to be news or lifestyle sources. Our list covers both consumer and industry (B2B) media. You can consult our list of 100 brands and read more about our criteria here.

The BBC was top for engagement, with audiences spending 9.4 billion minutes with the brand in April, well ahead of second placed Mail Online (1.8 billion minutes) and third-placed ITV (727.1 million minutes). ITV saw the largest year-on-year growth, up 68%, in the total minutes spent with its content.

The BBC also led for average minutes spent with its content per person (246 minutes), while Mail Online (71 minutes) and ITV (51 minutes) were second and third respectively.

March 2023

ITV was the fastest-growing top ten newsbrand in the UK in March by a long margin, according to Press Gazette's monthly ranking.

ITV's audience was up 25% year-on-year and 5% month-on-month to reach 17.2 million people, according to data from Ipsos iris. ITV launched its streaming service ITVX, which includes news content, at the end of 2022. 

Five other newsbrands in the top ten also grew in March. They were The Guardian (audience of 24.1 million, up 7% year-on-year), Sky News (19.2 million, up 4%), the BBC (39.2 million, up 2%), the Telegraph (16.8 million, up 1%) and The Sun (27.9 million, up 1%). 

Among the top ten, The Independent saw the largest fall in audience (20.8 million, down 10% year-on-year). This followed a smaller drop of 2% in February.

The BBC retained its regular position at the top of the ranking for audience, reaching 78% of the UK online population aged over 15. It was followed by The Sun (56% reach), The Mirror (audience of 24.8 million, 50% reach), Mail Online (audience of 24.8 million, 50% reach) and The Guardian. In a reversal of last month's change of position, the Guardian overtook the Independent to take a spot in the top five, while The Independent fell to sixth place. 

Among the entire top 50, fastest-growing was Time Out (5.1 million, up 71% year-on-year). The destination specialist publisher, which was the second-fastest growing newsbrand in our list in February, closed its print edition last year after 54 years of publication. 

It was followed this month by three Reach titles: Nottinghamshire Live (4.8 million, up 50% year-on-year), Wales Online (9.8 million, up 47% year-on-year) and Bristol Live (4.5 million, up 38% year-on-year).

The BBC again led for engagement, with audiences spending 9.4 billion minutes with the brand in March -  up 1% year-on-year and up 3% month-on-month. Next best-ranked was Mail Online (2 billion minutes), and ITV (889.2 million). Reflecting its increased reach, the total minutes spent with ITV were up by 46% year-on-year. 

February 2023

ITV and Manchester Evening News were the only top ten newsbrands in the UK to grow year-on-year in February according to Press Gazette's monthly ranking.

ITV's audience was up 20% year-on-year to 16.5 million, while the audience to Manchester Evening News grew 10% to reach 16.6 million, according to data from Ipsos iris.

ITV's growth could be attributed to the launch of streaming service ITVX, which includes news content, towards the end of 2022. It also once again saw a large year-on-year increase in minutes spent with its content - up 54%.

The rest of the ten biggest newsbrands in February saw drops in audience. The Daily Express saw the biggest drop as its audience was down 17% to 16.7 million compared to February 2022. This followed a 17% year-on-year drop in January as well. 

It was followed by Sky News (down 9% to 17.8 million), The Sun (down 8% to 26.8 million) and Mail Online (also down 8% to 23.4 million).

This is the second month for which Press Gazette has year-on-year data for the sites in our top 50 ranking following Ipsos' recognition as the industry-recognised standard in 2021. 

The BBC again commanded the largest audience during the month, reaching 78% of the UK online population aged over 15 (38.9 million people), followed by The Sun (54% reach), the Mirror (24.6 million people, 49% reach) and Mail Online (48% reach). 

While the top four remained unchanged from last month, The Independent grew 8% compared to January reaching 21.1 million people, displacing The Guardian (audience of 20.7 million) from fifth place. 

For our list, we used Ipsos' ranking of the top online brand groups and selected the 50 biggest that Press Gazette considers to be news or lifestyle sources. From July onwards, this list of 50 is drawn from a list of 100 traditional and digital native online brands which in our view present editorially-driven content covering news, current events, lifestyle and culture. Our list covers both consumer and industry (B2B) media. You can consult our list of 100 brands and read more about our criteria here.

Among the top 50 as a whole, lifestyle and culture brands performed well for year-on-year growth, although fastest-growing was Reach regional Nottinghamshire Live (audience of 5.3 million, up 102% year-on-year). It was followed by Time Out (4.4 million, up 64%), which closed its print edition last year after 54 years of publication and Glamour UK (3.4 million, up 52%).

The BBC again led for engagement, with audiences spending 9.1 billion minutes with the brand in February - four times higher than next-best placed Mail Online (2.3 billion minutes), although the BBC figures include its entertainment content and not just news. Third was ITV (882.7 million minutes) while fourth was The Guardian (662.8 million minutes). 

January 2023

The New York Times was the UK's fastest-growing newsbrand in January, according to Press Gazette's ranking of the 50 biggest online news names.

It was followed by Reach regional Nottinghamshire Live (six million visitors, up 62% year-on-year), Time Out (4.1 million visitors, up 47%) and music and entertainment publisher NME (4.1 million, up 43%).

This is the first month for which Press Gazette has year-on-year data for the sites in our top 50 ranking following Ipsos' recognition as the industry-recognised standard in 2021. In January last year Ipsos increased the sources of embedded browser traffic counted in its data, as well as its total internet population figures. 

Among the ten biggest sites by audience size, only Manchester Evening News (18 million visitors, up 5%) and the Mirror (25.3 million visitors, up 1% year-on-year) increased their traffic. 

Among the top ten, the Independent (20.4 million visitors, down 12%), Metro (16.9 million, also down 12%) and the Daily Express (17.6 million, down 17%) saw the biggest year-on-year drops. 

The BBC again commanded the largest audience during the month, reaching 76% of the UK online population aged over 15 (38.1 million people), followed by The Sun (26.3 million, 53% reach), the Mirror (51% reach) and Mail Online (24.3 million, 49%). The Guardian (21.7 million, 43% reach) rounded out a top five that saw the title climb one place on its December ranking, but remain otherwise unchanged.  

The BBC again led for engagement by a long margin (audiences spent 9.9bn minutes with the brand in January), although it should be noted its figures include its entertainment content and not just news. Second-best placed was Mail Online (2.2 billion minutes) while third was The Guardian (731.8 million minutes). 

Fourth best-ranked for total minutes, ITV saw a large year-on-year increase in minutes spent with its content which was up 39% to 701.5 million minutes. This could be attributed to the launch of streaming service ITVX, which includes news content, towards the end of 2022.

The New York Times, while ranking 26th for reach, came tenth for engagement having seen a huge year-on-year increase in time spent with the brand's digital properties (212 million minutes, up 804% year-on-year). The site saw a boost in its popularity after its acquisition of Wordle last spring.  

December 2022

The Telegraph was the UK's fastest-growing top ten newsbrand in December, according to Press Gazette's ranking of the 50 biggest online news names.

The audience to the Telegraph's website and app increased by 6% month-on-month to 17.5 million visitors, according to data from Ipsos iris.

It was followed by Sky News (18.8 million unique visitors, up 5% compared to November) and Mail Online (24.4 million visitors, up 5%).

The Independent (22.2 million visitors, up 4%), Metro (17.4 million visitors, up 4%) and the BBC (38.6 million, up 1%) were the remaining top ten newsbrands by audience size to grow in December.

Manchester Evening News meanwhile saw its audience fall 6% to 18.3 million people - the biggest drop among the ten biggest newsbrands.

The order of the six biggest newsbrands by number of unique visitors remained unchanged in December compared to the previous month. The BBC commanded the largest audience during the month, reaching 77% of the UK population.

It was followed by The Sun (27.3 million visitors, 55% reach), the Mirror (25.5 million, reach of 51%), Mail Online (49% reach), The Independent (45% reach) and The Guardian (42% reach).

A number of newsbrands that did not make November's top 50 entered the ranking this month. Among them were Ladbible stablemate Sportbible (3.1 million visitors, rank 50, up 12 places compared to November) and two Reach regional sites, Leicestershire Live (3.4 million visitors, rank 45, up eight places) and Leeds Live (3.1 million visitors, rank 49, up two places).

Sportbible was also the fastest-growing newsbrand among this month's top 50 list. Its audience grew 29% month-on-month. Second-fastest growing was Reuters (4.4 million people, up 22%), while Radio Times (7.7 million people, up 18%) saw the third biggest growth.

The BBC again led for engagement. Audiences spent 9.3 billion minutes with its content in December - over four times as much as second-best placed Mail Online (2 billion minutes) and 11 times as much as third-placed ITV (819.6 million minutes).

November 2022

Reach regional sites dominated the list of fastest-growing newsbrands in the UK for the second month in a row, taking four of the top ten spots, according to Press Gazette's ranking of the 50 biggest online news names.

The fastest-growing site was Nottinghamshire Live (5.8 million visitors, up 64% month-on-month) followed by Hull Live (3.4 million, up 52%). My London (6.8 million visitors, up 21%) and Lancs Live (4.1 million, up 21%) were also among the ten fastest-growing sites in fifth and sixth place respectively, according to data from Ipsos iris....

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