The internet traffic monitor released its latest data showing that in the week following the introduction of the paywall on 2 July, visits to thetimes.co.uk fell to a third of its pre-registration level.

Original expectations pitched an audience loss at around 90%.

Media blog Beehive City claims to have obtained figures for sign-ups and registration for before and after the paywall implementation. It says 150,000 users registered during the site’s free trial period, but the number that actually handed over payment details to access The Times’ online content was just 15,000, while those paying for its iPad app is around 12,500.

According to Experian Hitwise, the biggest drop in audience came in the five weeks before the paywall took effect, when visitors were asked to register their details. It was during this time that 58% of the online paper’s audience was lost. The decline since has been “modest”.

ComScore figures for UK online newspapers for June show thetimes.co.uk ranks last, behind Metro.co.uk and Johnston Press, with 2,219 unique visitors – a 21% drop from May.

The Times’ total number of pages viewed for June also fell to 20, from 29 in May – a 32% drop – while the average minutes per visitor fell to 5.8, a 24.2% decrease.

In the last week, however, The Times’ serialisation of former Labour Secretary of State for Business, Innovation & Skills Peter Mandelson’s controversial memoirs is thought to have driven the paper’s sales by around 30,000 over three days, with a knock-on effect on the website.