• by Erik Sass  @eriksass1, December 8, 2006

A new study from Scarborough suggests that newspaper Web sites attract users who are more likely to spend significantly on online purchases than the average Internet user. The Scarborough study focused on the Web sites of five regional papers--the Sacramento Bee, Houston Chronicle, Providence Journal in Rhode Island, Orlando Sentinel, and the Kansas City Star.

In each one of these markets, visitors to the newspapers' Web sites were more likely to spend at least $1,000 a year online than the average Internet user. They were also more likely to purchase specific items identified by Scarborough as market leaders in online sales--including airline tickets and travel reservations, books and clothing. They are also more likely to use Internet banking and other online financial services.

Looking at a variety of behavioral data in conjunction with online purchasing habits, it seems clear that visitors to these Web sites are relatively affluent compared to the average Internet user in that area. For example, visitors to the Houston Chronicle Web site are not only 34% more likely to make travel reservations online, but 24% more likely to have traveled to the Caribbean in the last three years, and 16% more likely to have traveled to Europe. Meanwhile, visitors to the Orlando Sentinel's Web site are 34% more likely than the average user in that area to have a 401k and 13% more likely to have a home mortgage.