Monthly unique visitors to newspaper websites in the US averaged more than 57.6 million in the fourth quarter 2006, a record number and the largest in any quarter since the US-based Newspaper Association of America (NAA) began tracking online usage in January 2004.
According to the data, which is part of a new report by Nielsen//NetRatings for NAA and takes into account home and work Internet usage, this represents a 6.9 per cent increase over the same period last year (53.6 million). In a year-over-year comparison, the average unique audience for newspaper websites grew by more than 10 million in 2006, an increase of more than 22 per cent over 2005 numbers.
October 2006 broke some records of its own; more than 58.7 million people visited newspaper Web sites that month, more than any month on record, a NAA press release said. This figure represented an 11 per cent increase from the same period a year ago.
"Newspaper websites continue to shatter records each quarter as they execute innovate strategies to expand the newspaper footprint," said NAA Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer John Kimball. "These sites continue to grow newspaper readership and increase revenue streams, attracting young and affluent consumers to a continually evolving medium."
For the year’s fourth quarter, more than 36 per cent of all active Web users visited newspaper websites, with visits averaging 43 minutes a month during the quarter. Users generated more than 2.8 billion page impressions on average, a 13.1 per cent increase over the same period a year ago.
These numbers come on the heels of a separate study from Nielsen//NetRatings indicating that traffic to blog pages at the top 10 newspaper websites grew a staggering 210 per cent in December (compared to the same month a year ago), with unique visitors to blog pages accounting for 13 per cent of overall newspaper website traffic that month.
"Newspapers update their websites to meet changing consumer demand," Kimball said. "The latest news, blogs, podcasts and other features makes these sites one-stop shops for consumers seeking immediate access to news and information.”
The NetRatings newspaper total represents a de-duplicated visitor total taken from its combined home and work panel of Internet users. The target adult sample (16 years or older) has access from a non-shared PC at work and access from home (i.e. an individual who might read a national newspaper plus their local newspaper online is only counted once.) The NetRatings newspaper total represents the de-duplicated reach of hundreds of sites collectively.
