Ipsos iris figures for March have been released, revealing the popularity of UK news brands. And once again, The Independent is the leading quality title.

Highlights

• In the UK, The Independent reached 21m readers in March, +8% month-on-month (MoM) and +1% year-on-year (YoY)
• The Independent is, yet again, the largest quality digital news brand, ahead of The Guardian in second place and The Telegraph in third
• The Independent was the only news brand with year-on-year growth. Among the digital quality news brands, The Telegraph was down 8% YoY, The Times -6% and The Guardian -14%.

Notable Independent website successes by section:

• Travel. Audience rose 36.2%. Total minutes surged 80.5%.
• Lifestyle. Audience grew 25.5%. Total minutes +11.7%.
• News. Audience up 19.6%. Total minutes increased 21.0%.

Pureplay charts

Meanwhile, Independent Digital News and Media brands occupied all four top spots in the News Pureplay charts. 

In March, Independent Digital News and Media and BuzzFeed announced a strategic partnership, bringing together the globally renowned brands of The Independent (which includes Independent TV, IndyBest and Indy100) with BuzzFeed UK, Tasty UK, Seasoned and HuffPost UK, to form one operation in the UK and Ireland, led by The Independent.

March News Pureplay results:

1. The Independent 21m (+8% MoM) 
2. HuffPost 2.9m (+12%)
3. Buzzfeed 2.3m (+8%) 
4. Indy100 1m (+16%).

Indy100 was the UK’s fastest growing News Pureplay.

Engagement

The Independent’s March successes also extended to engagement, with Ipsos iris metrics showing:

• The Independent’s page views were up 82.9m (21% month-on-month)
• The Independent achieved the fastest growing number of page views in the UK
• Each Independent reader viewed four pages, up significantly on February (+12%) and outperforming the month’s news brand average (+2%).

Source: © Ipsos, Ipsos iris Online Audience Measurement Service, March 2024, Brand Group – Digital Quality News Brands* and *Pureplays, all adults age: 15+, UK *Note: Custom defined list by The Independent. The Independent Brand Group audience includes Indy100 data.