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Telegraph.co.uk overtook guardian.co.uk in April to become the most popular UK national newspaper site, according to the latest Audit Bureau of Circulations Electronic figures issued today.
The Telegraph Media Group website, which carries articles from the Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph as well as original output, saw its unique user numbers rise 9.45% from March to 18,646,112 for April. This was an increase of 153% year on year compared with April 2007.
Today's ABCe figures show that Telegraph.co.uk added more than 1.6 million unique users between March and April. This followed an addition of 5 million uniques between February and March.
Guardian.co.uk saw a month-on-month fall of just under 1% in its unique user numbers, to 18,546,017 in April. This represented a year-on-year increase of 22.25% compared with April 2007.
Mail Online had another strong month with 18,039,943 unique users during April, up less than 1% from March but by 93% compared with April 2007.
In April, Times Online rose 4.21% month on month to 15,406,254 unique users, equivalent to a 73% year-on-year increase.
Sun Online had 14,068,523 unique users last month, up by just over 2% from March and 71% compared with April 2007.
Mirror Group Digital, which joined the monthly ABCe web traffic audit in April, recorded 4,277,502 unique users, down 3% from March.
Mike Moore, the general manager - digital, of Telegraph Media Group, said: "March was a great month for us and April has been even better, with Telegraph.co.uk growing both month on month and more than doubling our unique users from last year."
Moore put the increase down to a combination of "strong editorial content, expert opinion, and a new digital strategy", while the TMG digital editor, Edward Roussel, said the US election and credit crunch had been popular on the site in April.
"The Telegraph is a trusted brand for coverage of major global events, such as the credit crunch and the US election. The climax of the football season has also boosted our audience," added Roussel. "Our strategy of combining text with video is delivering excellent results."
Times Online said an apparent dip in traffic was caused by a problem with its Hitbox web traffic measurement software for two days last month.
Visitors to busy stories on the Pennsylvania primary elections in the US and key Manchester United matches in the Champions League were not recorded, according to the Times Online editor-in-chief, Anne Spackman.
The ABCe figures also give geographic traffic breakdowns that show guardian.co.uk had the most unique users in the UK at 7,762,826 in April, accounting for 41.9% of its audience.
Telegraph.co.uk recorded 6,327,348 unique users last month, or 33.9% of its audience; while Times Online had 5,637,402, 36.6% of its overall users during April.
Around 39.3% of Sun Online's audience was from the UK, or 5,533,141 unique users; and Mail Online recorded 5,416,065 within the UK, equivalent to 30% of its web audience.
Mirror.co.uk had 2,542,585 unique users, or 59.4% of its audience, in the UK, and said that increasing domestic audience was a priority.
Newspaper websites rely on ABCe figures to provide a consistent benchmark for advertisers, although little revenue is generated by traffic outside the UK.
Sun Online, which includes the fantasy football site dreamteamfc.com, sunbingo.co.uk and page3.com, was the leading UK national newspaper website in terms of page views last month, with 256,274,546.
Guardian.co.uk recorded 182,265,427 page impressions and Mail Online had 146,452,603.
Telegraph.co.uk's ABCe audit shows 135,273,024 page views for April, while Times Online had 109,286,293.
Mirror Group Digital does not publish its page view numbers.
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