The Guardian
The Guardian
Our innovative election results tracker saw almost double the page views of 2019, with readers returning frequently throughout the night. In the run-up, political editor Pippa Crerar scored a scoop with her revelation that Rishi Sunak’s aide had placed a bet on the election date just before its announcement. Inquiries by the police and the Gambling Commission followed. Our investigation into Frank Hester, the Tories’ biggest donor who said Diane Abbott “makes you want to hate all black women”, prompted outrage.
Readers who stayed up all election night were rewarded with Andrew Sparrow’s peerless live blog – our most-read of the year, with 8.2m views – and those who chose sleep flocked to the Guardian in the morning, with 66.7m views and 15.2m unique visitors the day after the vote.
It was a success we repeated globally for the US election, with Trump’s return to the White House highlighted in our smart repackaging showing what’s at stake in a second term and sending tens of thousands of readers back to our original, deeply reported journalism. With more than 12.2m visits to the results interactive, 6.5m to our 24-hour election night live blog, and speedy analysis of how the race was won (and lost), readers were given the full picture throughout.
A column from our US editor, Betsy Reed, about the Guardian endorsement of Kamala Harris as other US media outlets – and their owners – shrank back “may be one of the most successful subscription marketing messages in the history of online news”, said Press Gazette; though reader support hit even higher record levels in the day and week after Trump’s reelection, showing the value of Guardian journalism in the years ahead.
We introduced news alerts for the UK and US elections, alongside a design overhaul that streamlined presentation of the homepages. Our decision to launch a dedicated edition for Europe readers paid off, with theguardian.com/europe firmly established as our second most-visited homepage, driving a surge in financial support from European readers.
During Euro 2024, host nation Germany became our biggest European audience outside the UK – only to be overtaken by France as the Paris Olympics kicked off. This was our strongest Olympics and Paralympics of all time, the immediacy and depth of our reporting bringing in 105m views, a rise of 45% on Tokyo in 2021 and 52% on Rio in 2016.
We have remained committed to on-the-ground and live reporting on conflicts in the Middle East and Ukraine, securing an exclusive – and prescient – interview with Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
This sits alongside Amelia Gentleman’s investigation into the men-only Garrick Club, disclosures about security failings at Sellafield and our revelation that the world’s richest 1% generate more carbon emissions than the poorest 66% as reporting with real-world impact, delivered seamlessly across our website and apps to millions of readers globally.