All-time high for Catalan News page views in 2020

In 2020, and as English language speakers in Catalonia and beyond sought out reliable information on the unfolding health crisis, Catalan News became a trusted news source for more people than ever before.

Catalan News is exceptionally proud of the 1,431,975 unique users it saw in 2020, which represents a 140% surge compared to 2019 when a total of 592,000 people visited our website. An also all-time high 5,934,534 pages were viewed in the past 12 months.

The days—and months—with most website traffic correlate with the year's biggest moments. March 14, the day Spain declared a state of alarm, we recorded our highest single-day number of visitors, 32,211 people, while that same month we had a staggering 232,000 visits.

Other website traffic highs coincided with the announcement of new Covid-19 restrictions or outbreaks throughout the year: 29,849 unique visitors on July 17; 27,435 on October 29, and 23,409 on October 14. The month of July was Catalan News' most popular month of the year with 239,000—7,000 more than the month the first Covid-19 state of alarm was imposed.

These figures surpass record numbers seen on key dates in October 2017, the month of the independence referendum and declaration, as well as October 2019, when the vote organizers were convicted of sedition and weeklong riots ensued.  

Our most-read articles this year were the one containing all the graphs of the Covid-19 figures and our guide with the most updated restrictions applying to Catalonia to fight the virus. 

Visitors to our site

Over two-thirds of our page views, 71%, were from people who are native-English speakers, and our main audience this year was made up of people who reside in Spain (35% of all unique visitors), followed by the United Kingdom (18%), and the United States (11%).

Marc Colomer, who presides over the Catalan News Agency, is pleased by the successful English-language service his agency has been providing those who wish to know what is happening in Catalonia but who may not speak enough Catalan or Spanish to fully understand other outlets, calling Catalan News key to "social cohesion and inclusion" during 2020's most trying moments.

Podcast

2020 was also the year Catalan News launched its weekly podcast, 'Filling the Sink', which can be found on the Catalan News website as well as Spotify or Apple Podcasts.

Named after the Catalan expression "de mica en mica, s'omple la pica" (literally, "little by little, the sink fills up," though perhaps best translated as "slowly but surely"), host Lorcan Doherty tackles current issues with our reporters and special guests, from Covid-19 to mushroom hunting or the legacy of Francoism.

Get in touch

We would like to extend our thanks to our readers for placing their trust in us—we definitely would not have been able to do this without you all. 

For any comments or questions, you can always contact our newsroom through the email address catalannews@acn.cat.

If you wish, you can also sign up for our weekly newsletter, delivering some of the biggest stories of the week gone by every Monday, by clicking the 'Newsletter' button at the top of the page.