• by Masha Geller , September 29, 2002

Another week -- another set of web traffic numbers proving that the web is an essential procrastination tool for office workers. Nielsen//NetRatings reports that traffic from work to daily newspapers and finance news sites jumped during the week ending September 22, as office workers flocked to the Web to get the latest updates on world and financial news.

Traffic to the LA Times website surged 37% from 451,000 surfers to 616,000. The Chicago Tribune site jumped 29% with 561,000 visitors compared to 435,000 visitors during the previous week. The Wall Street Journal attracted 477,000 surfers jumping 29%, while Forbes.com drew 467,000 unique visitors rising 27%. Rounding out the list, Marketwatch.com gained 23% more surfers for the week to 1.8 million.

"Online news sources deliver a powerful combination of breaking news and deep insight, feeding their audience with round-the-clock content," said Carolyn Clark, Internet analyst at Nielsen//NetRatings. "As world news and negative Wall Street reports dominated headlines last week, office workers stayed on top of the action online."

Elsewhere on the web, as Hurricane Isidore stormed towards the Gulf of Mexico, Web surfers logged onto the Weather Channel, spiking traffic 24% at work for the week ending September 22, according to Nielsen//NetRatings. Nearly 4.2 million office workers visited the Weather Channel for up-to-the-minute storm and projected path details, and satellite shots of Hurricane Isidore in the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico.

Not surprisingly, CBS.com drew 31% more traffic in the latest week, as the fifth installment of the "Survivor" series fueled increased visitorship. The premier of "Survivor: Thailand" last week, drove surfers to the site, as more than 1.4 million unique visitors logged on to CBS for the cast and show information.