The country’s leading independent news portal, Malaysiakini , has reclaimed its number one spot as the nation’s most visited news website accessed through either desktops or laptops.

According to comScore's Media Metrix report for January 2015, Malaysiakini came out tops with a total of 1.25 million monthly unique visitors.

The Star trails behind in the number two spot, with 1.16 million unique visitors, while Malay portal Harian Metro is at number three (996,000), followed by The Malaysian Insider (951,000) and another Malay portal, Sinar Harian (773,000).

This is the first time Malaysiakini has occupied the top spot since May last year. In the past seven months, Malaysiakini tailed either The Star or Harian Metro and in certain months, it was behind both websites.

Malaysiakini editor-in-chief Steven Gan noted it was increasingly a challenge for the subscription-based website to maintain its pole position, given that it has a paywall, while its competitors are free-of-charge.

“Still, we started this year on the right note. We shall do our best to ensure we keep our number one position for the rest of 2015,” he said.

Revamped mobile site

According to Gan, Malaysiakini , being a socio-political news website, was also dependent on the country’s political climate.

“If the political mercury goes up, so will Malaysiakini 's traffic.”

He disclosed the portal has just revamped its mobile site and those with smartphones can access it through m.malaysiakini.com .

In the coming months, Malaysiakini will carry out a redesign of its desktop site as well as its mobile apps.

“We also plan to hold focus-group meetings with our loyal subscribers to touch base with them and get their feedback on how we can better serve our readers,” said Gan.

ComScore, which releases their report monthly, will announce the February results in the coming weeks.

The American company is one of the global leaders in the industry of measuring digital audiences.