The Newspaper Association of America (NAA), a nonprofit organization representing the newspaper industry in the U.S. and Canada, released data today indicating that Web traffic at newspaper sites is absolutely exploding. Both the overall number and percentage of Internet users visiting newspaper Web sites hit new all-time highs in November 2005, according to a new report by Nielsen//NetRatings for the NAA.
The data takes into account home and work Internet usage, showing that more than 55 million people visited newspaper Web sites in November. That''s a 30 percent increase (42.5 million) from the same period a year ago.
The November visitors also represent 36 percent of all active Internet users that month, the most of any month since NAA began tracking online usage in January 2004.
In a news release issued by the NAA, John Kimball, NAA senior vice president and chief marketing officer is quoted as saying, “Newspaper Web site usage jumped during the third quarter of 2005, coinciding with national interest in news from the south’s hurricane stricken coast. With the fourth quarter surpassing that number of visitors, it’s clear that online newspapers are becoming a staple for readers that rely on the Web for information just as the core newspaper is for the print consumer.”
For the year’s fourth quarter, the monthly unique audience averaged more than 53.6 million and 35.2 percent of all active Web users. The time Internet users spend on newspaper sites also continues to rise as users’ visits averaged 42 minutes a month during the quarter.
|
Month |
Unique Audience |
Active Reach Percentage |
Page Views |
Pages per person |
Time Per Person (mm:ss) |
Visits Per Person |
|
Oct-05 |
53,137,506 |
34.95 |
2,657,141,982 |
50.01 |
45:14 |
8.18 |
|
Nov-05 |
55,341,440 |
36.29 |
2,468,267,202 |
44.60 |
40:23 |
7.52 |
|
Dec-05 |
52,406,635 |
34.44 |
2,352,773,119 |
44.89 |
40:39 |
7.75 |
|
Q4 Average |
53,628,527 |
35.23 |
2,492,727,435 |
46.5 |
42:05 |
7.82 |
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.
As a result of this data and other signs that the industry must change, newspapers are accelerating their push to disassociate themselves from the medium through which their content has traditionally been delivered (newsprint) and adopt a more universal mentality about what their product truly is: the content itself.