The top newspapers and magazines in the United Kingdom outperformed compared to the overall online marketplace, seeing double-digit growth in audiences this year, according to Nielsen Online data, Media Week reported.

The top 10 newspaper sites brought in 23 percent more visitors in November 2008 year-over-year, while the top 10 magazine sites marked a 30 percent increase.

The Guardian maintained its leading position with 3.4 million unique UK visitors, although it reported the lowest year-on-year growth of 14 percent. The Telegraph followed, up 23 percent to 3.1 million visitors, while News International's sites for The Times was up 42 percent to 2.8 million, Media Week reported, citing Nielsen data.

The Sun grew 43 percent to 2.7 million, according to Media Week, while The Daily Mail Web site only ranked on the fifth spot, in spite of a 65 percent year-over-year growth to 2.7 million.

The leading magazine site was Auto Trader, with 1.8 million visitors. Which? magazine took the second with one million, followed by BBC Good Food (745,000) and Radio Times (566,000).

"Regardless of what's happening with print circulations, the major papers have had a fantastic year online, all experiencing strong growth in audience numbers," said Alex Burmaster, Nielsen Online's communications director, Media Week reported.

Burmaster said the UK online audience is expected to grow 10 percent to 11 percent by the time final data has been gathered for the whole of 2008 - " this has been more than doubled by the leading newspaper sites and trebled by the magazine brand extensions," he said. "Such growth certainly supports the case for publishers to continue to invest online and realign their business focus."