Extra.ie, the news website owned by DMG Media, clocked up over 500,000 unique users since it was officially launched on February 17.
According to Paul Henderson, chief executive of DMG Media Ireland: “We are really excited by the initial numbers on Extra.ie and we’d like to thank our half a million readers for their support to date. The results show there is a very strong appetite for a new brand that really understands the news space, its audience and the digital platforms on which it is served. But this is very much just the start of the journey for us. This is a brand that we have very big plans for and we’ll be bringing lots of innovation and great content to the Irish public in the coming months.”
According to the publisher, better use of data has been central to the website’s initial growth.
“We are constantly listening to the Irish public. They tell us very quickly what they like and what they don’t like and we have to react fast to compete. We are always changing our photos, headlines, article length and videos based on data and feedback from our readers. So we always serving up the news that our readers want on their phones and it’s great to see our audience build quickly as a result,” according to Garrett Brennan, head of online content at DMG Media Ireland.
Extra.ie is part of the DMG Media Ireland group which, apart the Irish Daily Mail and Irish Mail on Sunday, also publishes the successful Evoke.ie which it set up three years ago. It is also part of DMG which publishes the very successful MailOnline website.
