The new year has begun – and we start it by analysing which publishers in the UK and in France ranked most often in the Google News Boxes in the last quarter of 2015 and were therefore successful with their Google News Optimisation. Let’s start with the analysis for the News Boxes in the United Kingdom.

bbc.co.uk and theguardian.com have highest visibility figures in the Google News Boxes in the final quarter of 2015.

Bbc.co.uk and theguardian.com lose slightly in the final quarter of 2015

The greatest visibility in the Google News Boxes is reached by bbc.co.uk in the entire fourth quarter 2015. Theguardian.com is on the 2^nd place. Nevertheless, the News Dashboard screenshots show slight negative tendencies for both news players. The visibility in the Google News Boxes declines a bit during the quarter. While the BBC still had a share of over 35 percent in the News Boxes in October, the number was “only” at around 27 percent in December, which is certainly still very high. Theguardian.com also lost some of its visibility during this time period: between October and Mid-November, theguardian.com still had numbers around 28 to 30 percent. After that the numbers decline continuously. At the end of December, theguardian.com reaches a visibility of 20 percent in the Google News Boxes.

Dailymail.co.uk, telegraph.co.uk and independent.co.uk catch up

The other three News Players in the top 5 are able to raise their visibility in the Google News Boxes in the fourth quarter. It is most striking for dailymail.co.uk. At the beginning of the quarter until the end of November, the numbers are constantly around 14 percent. In December though, the number rise continuously until they reach 18 percent at the end of December. Dailymail.co.uk was thus only 2 percent points away from theguardian.com at the end of December regarding the visibility in the Google News Boxes.

Telegraph.co.uk also had a strong phase in the final quarter of 2015, namely in November. On average, the Telegraph’s visibility in the Google News Boxes was at around 14 percent in November. In October, the numbers were still at 12 percent. In December, the numbers ranged between 10 and 13 percent. The 5^th place is held by independent.co.uk, which gains visibility over the last three months of 2015. The numbers for The Independent improve slowly but steadily from 6 to 8 percent.

All in all it can be said that bbc.co.uk and guardian.com are still on place 1 and 2 concerning the visibility in the Google News Boxes like in overall 2015. However, the other publishers catch up and in 2016 it will be interesting to see whether this tendency stays, and whether the Daily Mail, the Telegraph and the Independent improve further concerning their Google News Optimisation.

How are things in France?

In France, no single News Player was able to prevail for the first two places concerning their visibility in the Google News Boxes in the 4^th quarter. There were more variations within the top 5 in France than in Great Britain. Lefigaro.fr and lemonde.fr alternated continuously on places 1 and 2. Lefigaro.fr reached numbers between 14 and 19 percent visibility in the Google News Boxes. The numbers of lemonde.fr ranged even more: their numbers were between 11 and 20 percent. 20minutes.fr ranked mostly on the 3^rd place. At the beginning of the quarter, this Publisher was overtaken by lequipe.fr, at the end of the quarter by leparisien.fr. Those two News Players alternated on places 4 and 5 for the rest of the time.

lefigaro.fr and lemonde.fr reached the highest visibility in the Google News Boxes in the final quarter of 2015.