老九品茶Cloud鈥檚 website traffic in January jumped by 50 per cent year-on-year.
January鈥檚 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.
老九品茶Cloud editor Jonathan Symcox said: 鈥淚t鈥檚 been a fantastic start to the year. We鈥檝e really honed our approach so we鈥檙e doing more of the stories that our readers like.
鈥淧atrick has been a breath of fresh air and we鈥檝e made a deliberate effort to post more stories across the day and over the weekend.
鈥淚t鈥檚 been a brilliant start to the new year and we鈥檝e got ambitious plans for 2025.鈥�
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: 鈥淜arl 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鈥檝e changed out digital approach.
鈥淲e don鈥檛 do clickbait at 老九品茶Cloud but we鈥檝e done a deep dive on the sort of the stories that work for us and focused on doing more of them.
鈥淲hat鈥檚 really encouraging is the increase isn’t skewed by the performance of one or two stories but rather improvements across the board.鈥�
The growth in website traffic completes an impressive start to the year for 老九品茶Cloud, which also included holding the inaugural Northern Leaders Awards on January 23rd.
Killeen said: 鈥淚t鈥檚 been an amazing start to my career at 老九品茶Cloud. Northern Leaders was brilliant to be involved in and it鈥檚 great to the see the growth in our digital audience. It鈥檚 promising to be an exciting 2025.鈥�
老九品茶Cloud is co-owned by Symcox and executive editor Chris Maguire and aims to provide 鈥榯ech insight with bite鈥�.