Newsquest Media Group, owners of the Evening Times, and the leading local multimedia group in the UK, has accelerated its digital audience growth to 24% in the first half of 2016. 

This compares with 17% annual growth in the second half of last year.

The official figures, out today, show Newsquest’s network of websites attracted 1,575,714 unique users per day in the first six months of this year, up 24.1% on the same period last year, and 25 million unique users per month, up 20.1%.

In July, the Evening Times had 1.35million unique users and saw over 40,000 Facebook likes, a rise of 400% year-on-year.

Henry Faure Walker, Newsquest CEO, said: “We hear a lot of doom and gloom about the future of local news but the truth is our journalists are engaging with local people and local communities in ever greater numbers, and there’s a phenomenal appetite for and engagement with the great local content they produce."

"We’re also seeing more and more local businesses advertising on our digital platforms because they want to work with trusted brands with relevant online audiences.”