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New-look Guardian site fails to connect

Posted in Media, Digital, Arif Durrani, Latest reporters' blogs July 26th, 2007 by Arif Durrani

The new-look Guardian website has seen its unique users drop 10 per cent following its relaunch, fuelling speculation that its cleaner, wider design has failed to hit the spot for its online community.

Today’s ABCe figures show that after initially gaining 900,000 curious users during May, numbers for Guardian Unlimited in June were 600,000 less than April’s pre-launch date.

The site itself, while still the industry’s most popular in the UK, has been criticised for its long scrolling pages, multiple columns and difficult navigation.

In its defence, it has incorporated more multimedia elements and its redesign roll-out is not yet complete.

Meanwhile, rival Times Online which under went a £10 million relaunch in March, continues to go from strength-to-strength, adding another million or so unique users during the same period, diluting arguments of a summer pinch.

With 9.6 million unique users, Times Online is now the second most popular newspaper website in the country, leapfrogging News International stablemate The Sun Online at 9 million.

Elsewhere, June proved to be a fairly unremarkable month for the sector, with only marginal adjustments posted for The Telegraph, The SundayTimes, The Sun and News of the World.