KentOnline has shown a staggering increase in readers.

The KM Group's countywide website can now boast nearly 300,000 unique browsers each month - up by 26 per cent on the same time last year.

The official figures show exactly 292,921 unique users for the period July to December last year, according to official ABCe figures.

The news comes just one month after the website was named as news service of the year in the Shepherd Neame annual Kent awards for 2010.

It faced stiff competition from newspapers, other websites and broadcasters to clinch the title.

KentOnline has also boosted its coverage by developing KentOnline Blogs, with all the latest news and views from bloggers around Kent, and has launched a live weekly Gills debate.

Statistics also showed KM Group has cemented its position as the biggest publisher in Kent.

The group, Kent’s only independent newspaper publisher, circulates 368,985 copies of its award-winning newspapers each week.

That’s 41 per cent - almost 108,000 - more copies than all its audited competitors combined.

Watch this space for more great KentOnline developments.