The Mail Online is the umbrella site for United Kingdom newspaper, the Daily Mail and features a mix of news, celebrity and controversy. It has become the highest circulating UK newspaper online. It marks a rising trend with online newspapers becoming “category plays,” targeting sectors of the market, such as entertainment, news, video or business. The modern newspaper website can now include everything from bingo games to nearly full blown television reporting.

Circulation figures show that global unique users of Mail Online have doubled since May 2007. The site overtook telegraph.co.uk and guardian.co.uk in May to become the UK’s most popular national newspaper site, with 18.7 million unique users – a 100% year-on-year growth and a 3.7% increase over April. Celebrity and sensation are likely to have been the key to Mail Online’s growth.

Celebrity and entertainment stories are increasingly international but of little use if they can’t be sold to advertisers. Mail Online had 5,090,981 users from the UK, who can be served by UK advertising, or 27.2% of its audience. This is the lowest UK audience for any national newspaper site. Broadsheet sites like this are carrying what are known as “link-bait” stories that editors know will get traffic because they are sensational or funny. Hollywood gossip site TMZ.com has more than 10.2 million users.

Tags: newspaper

Trackback from your own site.