• by Erik Sass , Staff Writer @eriksass1, October 15, 2015

Newspapers’ total online audience is not only bigger than ever, it’s growing at about twice the rate of the Internet overall, according to the latest figures from the Newspaper Association of America.

But these impressive numbers, while undoubtedly a testimony to consumers’ high engagement with newspaper brands, also serve to highlight the industry’s continuing challenges in monetizing their online audiences.

The NAA cited data from comScore showing that newspapers’ total digital audience in the U.S. jumped 10% from 163 million adult unique users in August 2014 to 179.3 million in August 2015, setting yet another new record in a steady long-term growth.

The NAA pointed out that this increase was double the growth rate for the U.S. Internet population overall, which expanded 5% from around 247 million to 259 million over the same period. In proportional terms, that means newspapers’ reach grew from 66% to 69% of the U.S. Internet population.

These figures were buttressed by detailed data showing that the vast majority of U.S. adults of both genders in key age groups read newspapers online, including 93% of men and 92% of women ages 25-44. Further, the growth rate for newspapers among younger adults (including several cohorts falling in the 18-44 age range) was more than twice the rate for the Internet overall.

Newspapers’ online penetration was still high among older demos, reaching 84% of women and 80% of men ages 45-54, and 75% of men and 72% of women ages 55+.

No surprise, mobile devices led the way in digital growth, with 50% of the digital audience now consuming newspaper content exclusively via mobile devices, compared to 27% for PC/desktop and 23% for combined mobile and PC/desktop. Within the mobile audience, 80% access newspaper content exclusively via smartphones.

But this sweeping reach and fast growth on the audience side hasn’t been matched by similar progress in monetization; indeed in some cases digital revenues are actually declining. While industry-wide figures for newspapers’ online revenues aren’t available, results from several big publicly-traded publishers can serve as a proxy for the business overall.

For example, in Gannett’s second-quarter earnings conference call, president and CEO Robert Dickey said digital ad revenues were “up in the low to mid- single digits” in year-over-year comparisons, while total digital revenues (including subscriptions) represent a quarter of its total revenues of $727 million.

At Tribune Publishing, digital ad revenues fell around 10% to $43 million, representing 10.5% of total revenues. At McClatchy, total digital ad revenues were down 1.8%. By way of comparison, total Internet ad revenues increased 16% in the first quarter, the most recent for which data are available, according to the Interactive Advertising Bureau.