• by Masha Geller , June 5, 2002

With all this talk about geo-targeting recently, online media buyers are often faced with one seemingly simple question of “Just how popular are local TV websites?” Well, according to the latest data from The Media Audit, of the 474 TV websites surveyed by the research firm in 2001, 273 attracted less than 4% of the adults in their immediate market. Only four stations attracted more than 20% and just 55 drew more than 10%.

"It's a very uneven picture," says Bob Jordan, co-chairman of International Demographics, Inc., a 31-year-old research firm, which produces The Media Audit. "A few dozen local television web sites are expanding their audience and demonstrating that local TV can succeed on the web. A few are making a formidable challenge to the newspapers in their markets, but the others seem to be uncommitted.

"Since its inception in 1998," says Jordan, "the online survey data shows the websites of daily newspapers dominating the local web media market. In 2001 the newspapers made significant gains while TV stations - collectively - showed little progress."

According to this most recent data, the two most successful TV sites, in the 85 metro markets surveyed, are MySanAntonio.com, which attracts 27% of the adults in the market and NewsOk.com (in Oklahoma City) with 24%.

"San Antonio and Oklahoma City," says Jordan, "are clear examples of convergence. And, obviously convergence works. Both combinations bring together the superior promotional ability of television with the overwhelming news gathering strength of newspapers. However, I think we still need to see this business model as a test. The question that still hasn't been answered is: Does this work financially for both partners?"