Prolific North is entering 2026 focused on strengthening its relationship with readers after delivering the strongest audience performance in its 13-year history, with double-digit growth across almost every key metric in 2025 despite one of the most turbulent periods the publishing industry has faced.
With the wider sector seeing sharp falls in search and referral traffic, the Northern creative, media and tech publisher grew page views by 36% year-on-year and unique users by 66%, marking the first time Prolific North has surpassed the one-million-user threshold, reaching more than 1.5m unique visitors.
Editor Karl Holbrook said the results underline the importance of prioritising trust, relevance and direct reader relationships. “Given the backdrop publishers have faced over the last year – collapsing search traffic, platform uncertainty and AI disruption – what the team achieved in 2025 was genuinely incredible,” he said. “But this really is just the beginning. The focus through 2026 will be on strengthening our relationship with readers even further – delivering more depth, more industry-specific originals and long-running editorial series that genuinely improve our offer and reward loyalty.”
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Google search traffic to the site was up 3% in 2025, at a time when wider industry data suggests search referrals to publishers fell by around a third, as reported by Press Gazette this week. But Prolific North’s biggest gains were not driven by volatile algorithms, they were fuelled by a meaningful shift towards strengthening direct relationships with readers.
Direct traffic rose 130% in 2025, while email traffic increased by 134%, underlining the growing importance of newsletters as a trusted, habit-forming channel at a time when traditional discovery routes are fragmenting. Newsletter engagement remained exceptionally strong throughout the year, with open and click through rates more than double industry benchmarks.
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The results come as new industry data shows global Google search traffic to publishers fell by around a third in 2025, with further declines expected as AI summaries, zero-click search and platform fragmentation accelerate.
Against that backdrop, Prolific North’s performance represents a significant rebound from a challenging 2024 – and signals a more resilient audience model built on loyalty rather than fleeting referral spikes.
Desktop consumption rose 136% year-on-year, reflecting how readers increasingly engage with Prolific North during the working day, while search traffic remained broadly stable despite industry-wide declines.
On social, Prolific North continued to outperform regional competitors and rival national B2B brands for efficiency. Followers on LinkedIn grew 17% year-on-year, while engagement per post significantly outpaced other Northern business publishers.
The audience remains firmly rooted in the North, led by Manchester, Leeds and Liverpool, while maintaining strong visibility among London-based industry professionals and senior leadership positions.
The record year follows Prolific North entering a new era of ownership and leadership, with a majority stake acquired by RM Communications and award-winning broadcaster Rob McLoughlin OBE appointed chairman, strengthening the platform for long-term growth.
Managing director Alexandra Balazs said the audience performance reflects both the strength of the brand and the trust it has built with its readership. “To deliver record growth at a period of such industry-wide volatility shows the trust the Northern ecosystem has in our brand.
“As we move into this next phase for the business, our priority is to build on this momentum with real depth rather than chasing scale for the sake of it. We are a media platform that’s only as strong as the community it serves, so we’re focusing on opening up new collaborative opportunities – investing in the journalism, partnerships and digital products that really matter to the Northern creative, media and tech community.”
Looking into 2026, Prolific North will double down on deeper engagement and high-value journalism, with a sharper focus on original reporting, explainers, investigations and industry-specific series – shifting emphasis from scale to even greater relevance and trust as it builds towards the future.
