Newsletter
A consoling note: Internet traffic soars
By Samantha Melamed
Aug 28, 2006, 13:04

While print newspaper readership declines, traffic to newspapers' web sites continues to grow at a brisk pace. For the second quarter of this year, total visitors were up 29.4 percent from the year-earlier period.

That's 55 million people, or about one in three work and home internet users hitting newspaper sites, according to Nielsen//NetRatings, which analyzed web traffic for the Newspaper Association of America. The greatest traffic was in May, when 36.6 percent of web users hit newspaper sites.

The average visitor spent 39.5 minutes per month on such sites, which is a 7 percent increase over a year ago. But the reality is, that's still far from where newspapers, which are seeking loyal, daily online readers, would like to be.

However, newspaper sites are capturing a large portion of the online news market, says Randy Bennett, the NAA's vice president of audience and new business development.  

"Comparatively, if you look at newspaper web sites, they're doing well in comparison to the aggregate news sites, like Yahoo! News," he says. "The challenge now for the newspaper sites is how to aggregate those eyeballs and deliver them to advertisers."

He sees double-digit growth continuing for several years to come, and says the sites offer advertisers access to a somewhat elusive audience of younger readers. The sites that are faring best, he says, are those that are marketing their online product and developing new and innovative content, whether it's community-focused content or better search engines.



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