MORE THAN six million unique monthly users are now visiting The Herald publisher Newsquest Scotland’s online platforms.

The record-breaking number was announced in the multi-platform publisher’s annual online review of its Scottish portfolio, which includes commercial classified platforms s1cars, s1homes, s1jobs and Exchange & Mart.

The portfolio delivers more 35 million monthly page views.

Read more: Newsquest named Most Innovative Publisher in The Drum’s Digital Trading Awards

Newsquest Scotland said the success reflected “outstanding growth” across its Herald & Times Group titles, and also included an “excellent” performance by Scottish regional titles acquired last year from the Romanes Publishing Group.

Gordon Stevenson, head of digital at Newsquest Scotland, said: “Our increased investment in training, real-time content analytics, digital product improvement and a belief in the power of social media has helped accelerate our ambitions to way beyond our initial audience targets.”

Volumes for display advertising increased by 316 per cent in the year to April, while the company has continued to build its classified business.

Read more: Newsquest named Most Innovative Publisher in The Drum’s Digital Trading Awards

Mr Stevenson also addressed the issue of recent changes to Facebook’s algorithms. These algorithms now prioritise user-generated content over media and brand content, and limit articles with so-called ‘click-bait’ headlines.

He said a huge percentage of traffic to the company’s websites came from Facebook referrals across all device types, indicating readers are exposed to more content through the social media network.

Read more: Newsquest named Most Innovative Publisher in The Drum’s Digital Trading Awards

“This provides a two-way opportunity for engaging in meaningful, relevant dialogue with readers,” said Mr Stevenson. “It’s about delivering the right content at the right time on any device the reader chooses.”

Newsquest is a wholly-owned subsidiary of US publishing giant Gannett, which owns USA Today along with more than 100 local US titles.