Northcliffe releases first ABCe figures for thisis websites

by Maisie McCabe, Media Week 09-Sep-08, 16:25

LONDON - Northcliffe Media, the regional division of the Daily Mail and General Trust, has published ABCe figures for 10 of its most popular thisis websites, with five of them recording more than 200,000 unique users a month.

Northcliffe is the first regional publisher to commit to releasing data through the new ABCe six-month certificates. The initial figures reflect the period 1 April to 30 June, 2008.

Thisisnottingham.co.uk recorded the largest audience, with 318,367 uniques users. Thisisderbyshire reported an average of 216,283, thisisleicestershire.co.uk 215,113 and thisisbristol an average of 207,138.

The audits follow a study earlier this year, carried out by Northcliffe Media and Survey Interactive, that showed the de-duplicated monthly reach across all of Northcliffe’s newspapers and websites was approximately 4.7 million adults.

The 10 websites are the first in Northcliffe Media’s portfolio of more than 100 sites to be independently verified. Northcliffe aims to extend the audits to 20 sites for the period January to June 2009, with a view to covering all of its major sites in the future.

Regional newspaper publishers have not previously reported ABCe figures on a regular basis. The new certificate requires continuous reporting and allows media owners to report their online data with the print figures, making it easier to offer media planners multi-format packages.