Newsquest Media Group, owner of The Messenger, is celebrating a new record in digital audience.
The company, the UK's leading local media group, reached 61 million unique online visitors in August, with a record number of articles read on its sites.
Newsquest websites achieved 208m article page views in August, marking an 11 per cent increase year on year.
Total page views for Newsquest, which publishes more than 200 titles across the UK, were 306m in August, a seven per cent increase year on year.
This follows on from a strong July, which was also a record month with article page views at 207m, a year-on-year increase of 13 per cent.
Total page views for Newsquest in July were 303m, an eight per cent increase year on year.
Newsquest also continues to see strong growth in its digital subscriptions, with 135,000 monthly paying digital subscribers as of the end of August, a year-on-year increase of 35 per cent.
Newsquest runs a soft pay wall on approximately 60 per cent of its local news sites. Online visitors to these sites can typically read up to 30 articles a month before paying, although a small number of articles are subscriber-only.
A digital subscription, which is typically priced at £4.99 per month, includes access to all the site’s content in an ad-light environment as well as an e-edition of the print paper.
Henry Faure Walker, CEO of Newsquest, said: "There’s been some commentary recently about whether people are disengaging from mainstream news, but as these figures show, that’s clearly not the case with local – people love local news.
"We’re encouraged by the excellent progress our teams continue to make, further strengthening online engagement, with our local sites now typically reaching more than 75 per cent of local people each month."
Richard Duggan, Editor of The Messenger and Regional Editor North West, said: "It remains the case that our news sites provide a range and depth of coverage you simply cannot get anywhere else.
"It's been a great year for the brand; August was a record-breaking month with more visitors to our website than ever before,
"Regular readers of our printed product will have noticed a revamped front page and a reconfigured set of pages to include more local news."
Newsquest's most visited website in August was the Oxford Mail with 11.4m article page views, followed by the Eastern Daily Press with 10.2m page views.
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