BusinessCloud’s website traffic in January jumped by 50 per cent year-on-year.
January’s digital audience was also up 27 per cent on the figures for December 2024.
The figures were the second highest recorded in five years and follow a change in digital strategy and the recruitment of reporter Patrick Killeen.
BusinessCloud editor Jonathan Symcox said: “It’s been a fantastic start to the year. We’ve really honed our approach so we’re doing more of the stories that our readers like.
“Patrick has been a breath of fresh air and we’ve made a deliberate effort to post more stories across the day and over the weekend.
“It’s been a brilliant start to the new year and we’ve got ambitious plans for 2025.”
Symcox also paid tribute to the contribution of media veteran Karl Holbrook, director of North Squared Media.
The former executive editor of the Daily Express and regional group editor of The Northern Echo is acknowledged as an industry expert in growing digital audiences.
Symcox said: “Karl generously gave us some of his time in December and shared some tips on how we could grow our digital audience. It really made us think outside the box so we’ve changed out digital approach.
“We don’t do clickbait at BusinessCloud but we’ve done a deep dive on the sort of the stories that work for us and focused on doing more of them.
“What’s really encouraging is the increase isn’t skewed by the performance of one or two stories but rather improvements across the board.”
The growth in website traffic completes an impressive start to the year for BusinessCloud, which also included holding the inaugural Northern Leaders Awards on January 23rd.
Killeen said: “It’s been an amazing start to my career at BusinessCloud. Northern Leaders was brilliant to be involved in and it’s great to the see the growth in our digital audience. It’s promising to be an exciting 2025.”
BusinessCloud is co-owned by Symcox and executive editor Chris Maguire and aims to provide ‘tech insight with bite’.