According to January Ipsos Iris data, released this week, Reach’s online portfolio has grown its overall page views 6.8% year on year, with a 1% increase in audience.
At an individual brand level, just over half of Reach’s sites are now growing their page views year on year.
Across the Live network of Reach’s local sites, engagement has increased, with pages per user up 32% year on year. Meanwhile, the Manchester Evening News, LancsLive, LincolnshireLive and AberdeenLive all recorded their best months in audience growth in the last 13 months.
The Express continues to be the fastest growing commercial news site amongst its Fleet Street peers, with year-on-year audience growth of 32% and a year-on-year page view growth of 38%. It also recorded its best page view month since July 2024, when it enjoyed a record-setting best ever month. When compared to January 2024, it has seen a marked growth of over four million more total audience and 37 million more page views.
BelfastLive continues to be the best-read Northern Irish news brand, up significantly year on year. Meanwhile, the Daily Record remains the biggest newsbrand in Scotland and WalesOnline reaches more people in Wales than any other news site.
Reach news brands are also increasingly appealing to younger audiences, with the under-35 audience growing by 2% overall. In January, Reach titles were read by 70% of the total UK online audience, and 58% of the under-35 audience, consolidating its position as the UK’s biggest commercial publisher.
David Higgerson, Reach’s Chief Digital Publisher, said: “Building on a strong end to 2024, it’s great to see that over half of our sites are now in page view growth, year on year. What’s particularly meaningful about these numbers is not just that we’re getting more page views overall, but that our audience is choosing to come back to us more often, with page views per user up by 32%.
“It’s a very positive sign too that we’re attracting more under-35s, in large part thanks to more young people finding our content off platform.
“This is testament to a lot of the work that our teams have put into producing engaging content across a range of channels. The success of our Content Hub has also allowed our brands to spend more time deepening their relationships with their audiences, which we can see now bearing fruit.”
