The number of users accessing thetimes.co.uk and thesundaytimes.co.uk almost halved since they launched in May as free-to-access websites, according to data released today.

Figures from Comscore suggest a combined total of 1.614m users visited the sites in July - a drop of 42 per cent from the 2.794m that accessed the sites in May prior to the introduction of paid-for access.

The number of pages viewed also dropped from 29m in May to nine million in July - a fall of 68.6 per cent, the figures suggest.

In addition, the time spent on the site by the average user fell from 7.6 minutes in May to four minutes by July – a drop of 46.8 per cent.

News International launched new websites for The Times and Sunday Times in May ahead of the introduction of a paywall on 2 July.

Once paid-for access was adopted News International ran an introductory offer which allowed 30 days access to both sites for £1.

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