• by Sara Guaglione , December 30, 2016

Recent comScore data reveals Forbes’ U.S. mobile traffic in November propelled the site to a new record, affirming publishers’ investments this year in mobile.

Originally reported by Adweek, Forbes.com raked in 44.4 million unique visitors on mobile in November. Including desktop and tablet traffic, the Forbes comScore total in the U.S. last month is 56.5 million unique visitors.

Forbes’ mobile traffic from November is up 17.5% compared to the previous month. The numbers are a 30% increase compared to November 2015.

Chief product officer Lewis D’Vorkin told FishbowlNY the next step is to further monetize the mobile experience.

“There’s life beyond forbes.com and life beyond Forbes magazine,” he said. “And that life extends to everything people are doing with their mobile phones to access information, like new kinds of mobile experiences: podcasting, virtual reality, messenger services, Snapchat and many others. That’s the path we’re pursuing as we march forward.”

As Publishers Daily previously reported, online magazine audiences continue to shift from desktop to mobile devices.

According to The Association of Magazine Media's Magazine Media 360° Brand Audience Report for October, desktop and laptop Web audiences were down 9%, while mobile Web viewing was up 12.2%. Of the 125 brands that were included in the report, 94% had higher mobile audiences than Web audiences. 

Nearly one-quarter of these brands reported mobile audiences that were 3 times greater than their Web audiences.

Forbes wasn’t the only publication to experience record traffic in November, an unusual month due to the presidential election, when more people are reading news regularly.

For example, Hearst Magazines Digital Media reported six of its brands broke individual traffic records in November, including Esquire, Country Living, Harper's Bazaar, Marie Claire, Town & Country and its newest site, Best Products.

The Washington Post had 99.1 million unique visitors in November 2016, marking a 38% increase compared to last year, according to comScore. WaPo says these numbers should be even higher, and are “significantly under-reported” due to Facebook’s miscalculation of iPhone traffic on its Instant Articles platform.

WaPo believes once the numbers are adjusted for October and November, unique visitors will cross the 100 million mark.