The New Statesman website had record web traffic in June, thanks to its intelligent, informative and passionate coverage of the EU referendum and its aftermath.
The site registered more than four million unique users and 27 million page views in June.
The most popular single article was Laurie Penny’s response to the EU referendum and the death of Jo Cox, “I want my country back“, which was read by 2.6 million people.
In a single day – 25 June – more than a million users visited the site.
In total there were 4,091,832 unique visitors to the site in June. There were 27,291,666 page views.
Jason Cowley, editor of the New Statesman, said: “In these momentous times there is real desire for honest, intelligent reporting and authoritative comment and analysis. Last month’s record online traffic figures – boosted by the EU referendum and subsequent fallout – follow very strong online growth since our site relaunched in August last year. Our print magazine sales continue to grow and the New Statesman has not been in better shape for four decades.”
Helen Lewis, deputy editor, added: “From social media to supermarket tills, the vote to leave the EU has driven millions of conversations about politics. The New Statesman website has responded by offering intelligent, informative critiques of our options for Brexit, extensive coverage of the fast-moving developments in the Tory leadership race and Labour’s shadow cabinet revolt, and passionate polemic about what happens next. The NS now has more than 125,000 fans on both Facebook and Twitter, sharing our stories with their friends and family.”
The newstatesman.com team has been boosted by the arrival of Julia Rampen as editor of the Westminster-focused Staggers blog. She joins politics editor George Eaton, special correspondent Stephen Bush and deputy web editor Anoosh Chakelian in reporting on politics inside and outside Westminster.
The New Statesman was the first British periodical to launch an online edition (in 1995) and currently publishes all its magazine content online, free to view, a week after print publication. There are also PDF, Kindle and iPad editions of the magazine, published every Thursday.
The website combines essays, cultural criticism and reportage with witty, irreverent and polemical blogs and social commentary. More than 40 per cent of the New Statesman’s web traffic is generated by online readers sharing content on social media.