David BaleAfter just eight weeks, the Evening News' mobile website (m.eveningnews24.co.uk) is proving a huge success with thousands more people in Norwich using their phones to catch up on the latest news and sport.David Bale

After just eight weeks, the Evening News' mobile website (m.eveningnews24.co.uk) is proving a huge success with thousands more people in Norwich using their phones to catch up on the latest news and sport.

The website, which was specifically designed to be accessed by internet-enabled mobile phones, was launched at the start of December last year, and figures released today show just how many people are using the new website and how many pages they are looking at.

In December, 15,338 pages were read, while in January that number had leapt to 25,451, an increase of 66pc. The number of people who visited m.eveningnews24.co.uk in December was 2,263. In January the number was 3,475, an increase of 54pc.

Popular Norwich City fans' site pinkun.com also launched a website specifically for mobile phone users in December. Figures for m.pinkun.com show 85,682 pages were read in December. In January, the number had risen to 212,344, an increase of 148pc. There were 7,128 visitors to the site in December and 12,860 the following month, an increase of 80pc.

Tim Youngman, head of digital marketing for the Evening News, said today: 'We have seen strong growth on all our websites, especially pinkun.com with the football effect from Norwich City's climb to the top of the division. We have also had a great reaction from local advertisers and as part of the advertising opportunity we are now creating mobile sites for our customers to help them use these sites to connect with this new mobile audience'

Evening News editor Tim Williams added: 'We launched these new websites to better meet our readers' needs. We know that more and more people want to catch up with local news and sport on their iPhones, Blackberries and other mobile phones. 'M.eveningnews24 and m.pinkun.com offer people in Norwich more choice in how they read the most comprehensive news, what's on and sports information locally. The rapid increase in the number of people using the websites demonstrates how phones are changing from being things you hold a conversation on, to mini-computers that entertain and inform us in a whole new way.

'The Evening News and Pink 'Un are proud to be leading the way in how we serve the information needs of Norwich people.'

M.eveningnews24 and m.pinkun are free to use, and there are no subscriptions and no need to register. Mobile phones simply need to be capable of accessing the internet. As well as the latest news and sport, the sites feature local wallpaper screen backgrounds to download, a football scores text alert sign-up service and great offers from local retailers and services.

How to get to the new websites: When you use your mobile phone, visit our mobile site at m.eveningnews24.co.uk (you don't need the usual www for the mobile site) by typing that address into your mobile web browser and you will go straight to our new mobile site. Once you get to our mobile site, don't forget to save it as a bookmark in your phone so that you can easily go back to it whenever you want. OR alternatively send the word evening in a text message to 87700 (standard network charges apply). We will then send you a FREE text message containing a link to the site. Follow the link and you will be taken straight to our mobile site - and don't forget to bookmark us.