US news sites get 67m visitors a month

Via Publicitas:

Newspaper Web Sites Average More Than 67 Million Visitors Each Month in 2008; Web Audience Grows 8.6 Percent in Last Year’s Fourth Quarter

Average monthly unique audience figures for newspaper Web sites grew by nearly 7.3 million in 2008 to 67.3 million visitors, an increase of 12.1 percent over 2007, according to a new report by Nielsen Online for the Newspaper Association of America. Monthly unique visitors during the fourth quarter of 2008 averaged 68.2 million, an 8.6 percent increase over the same period a year ago (62.8 million). The data comprise home and work Internet usage.

“Newspapers’ digital audience has grown 60 percent in the last three years as the newspaper Web sites continue to attract sophisticated readers who demand comprehensive news and information that no other medium can match,” said NAA President and CEO John F. Sturm. “With the presidential election and economy dominating recent headlines, consumers continue to rely on newspapers as their trusted media brand for highly accurate reporting on the events that impact us all, each and every day.”

For last year’s fourth quarter, 41 percent of all active Web users visited newspaper Web sites, with visits averaging 45 minutes a month. Users generated more than 3.2 billion page impressions on average, a 7.8 percent increase over the same period a year ago.

Generating Revenue Streams Through Digital Initiatives

On the revenue side, newspapers are seeing significant impact from their relationship with Yahoo!, a partnership that includes access to Yahoo!’s ad management platform, Apt, and advertising inventory in local markets. Several individual newspapers in the partnership have each sold more than $1 million of Yahoo! inventory. For example, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution sold $2 million in Yahoo! inventory during the test phase of the platform. E. W. Scripps Newspapers generated almost $2 million in three markets over a four-day period in December 2008. Scripps sent a team of six corporate sales executives to train local sales staff and participate in sales calls to local advertisers.

Web Traffic To Top 10 Online Newspapers Grows 16 Percent Year-Over-Year In December

Reader Sessions Increase 27 Percent

Nielsen Online, a service of The Nielsen Company, reported a 16 percent year-over-year increase in unique visitors to the top 10 newspaper Web sites, growing from 34.6 million unique visitors in December 2007 to 40.1 million in December 2008. NYTimes.com was the number one online newspaper destination in December 2008, with 18.2 million unique visitors. USATODAY.com and washingtonpost.com took the No. 2 and No. 3 spots, with 11.4 million and 9.5 million unique visitors, respectively.

Not only are more people visiting newspaper Web sites, but they are also visiting these sites more often than they were a year ago. The number of total visits to the top 10 newspaper sites increased 27 percent year-over-year, growing from 199.6 million in December 2007 to 252.7 million in December 2008.

The New York Times Launches New Online Syndication Marketplace

The New York Times Syndication Sales announced the re-launch of nytsyn.com. The Web site now features an online syndication marketplace that allows users to purchase the latest news articles, features, images and multimedia from The New York Times and more than 100 of its content providers.