The Register publishes ABC ELECTRONIC audit

Press release The Register is the UK's leading audited tech publication - official.

An independent audit conducted by ABC ELECTRONIC of The Register's traffic in November 2004 shows that 2.9m Unique Users accessed the site during the month, up 52 per cent on November 2003. The Register had 21.78m Page Impressions and 271,000 Searches in November 2004.* A separate geo-location report of the same log files for traffic in November 2004 conducted by Quova shows that the United States is The Register's biggest source of traffic, accounting for 43 per cent of readers during the month, followed by the UK (18 per cent), Germany (6.7 per cent), Canada (6.2 per cent) and Japan (3.4 per cent).

The leading contributors to traffic by continent in November were North America (1,340,645 unique individuals), Europe (1,124,319) and Asia (283,594).

Drew Cullen, editor-in-chief of The Register, said: "Whatever you say about your site's traffic is meaningless unless you filter your logfiles to ABC ELECTRONIC standards. Our Page Impressions, for instance, were reduced by more than 40 per cent after we had stripped out the spiders, robots and proxy servers, as required by ABC ELECTRONIC. Despite this, we are pleased with the results.

"It is important not to have an inflated view of site traffic, both for our own understanding, and for our advertisers. ABC ELECTRONIC's methodology conforms to global standards determined by JICWEBS in the UK and Ireland and IFABC, globally, endorsed amongst others by the Interactive Advertising Bureau and it is the most important UK authority for website traffic metrics. This is why we are happy to publish our audit. We call on other UK-based tech publications to follow suit."

Jason Carter, UK managing director of Universal McCann Interactive, welcomed The Register's decision to publish its ABC ELECTRONIC audit: "This should be the case across the board. For a sector that has matured so rapidly, site measurement has generally lagged behind where it should be," he said. "If commercial sites want to pitch for a slice of our clients' advertising budgets they should in return offer us transparency - via regular, independent and published audits.

"This is especially important within mediums that command price premiums - suppliers should be willing to back up their sale pitches with hard evidence. Going forward we believe all major sites will have to be audited; it will be demanded by advertisers and agencies alike."

Richard Foan, managing director at ABC ELECTRONIC, commented: "The Register continues to achieve impressive traffic figures. By committing to have these figures independently audited to industry agreed standards The Register is leading by example and continues to present advertisers and investors with the assurance they need to invest in the site."

*The Register's ABC ELECTRONIC audit can be found at: http://www.abce.org.uk/ABCE_PDFS/theregister1104.pdf

About ABC ELECTRONIC

ABC ELECTRONIC was established in 1996, and building on the experience and expertise of the Audit Bureau of Circulations Ltd (ABC), has rapidly established itself as the organisation that media planners and owners trust to verify electronic media and Website traffic statistics to agreed industry standards, as defined by JICWEBS (see below) and endorsed by the IFABC. ABC ELECTRONIC is a not for profit, industry-owned organisation that works with, and on behalf of, advertisers, media buyers and media owners to provide third party, independent auditing services.

JICWEBS (Joint Industry Committee for Web Standards) is a body created by the UK media industry. Its aim is to ensure independent development and ownership of standards for measuring use and effectiveness of advertising on electronic media.

About The Register

The Register is the UK's biggest technology website. Each month almost three million readers worldwide tune into The Register's unique blend of news, views, comments and humour. Established in 1995, as an occasional free email newsletter, The Register took to the web in January 1997 and became a daily news operation in May 1998.

About Universal McCann Interactive

Universal McCann Interactive is the online planning and buying arm of Universal McCann. Universal Interactive operates in 32 offices in 28 countries and commands total billings of over $100 million worldwide. Key clients serviced include, Microsoft, Intel, Telefonica, Lucent Technologies, Motorola, General Motors, Cathay Pacific, Coca-Cola and L'Oreal.