• by March 29, 2002

Nielsen//NetRatings reports that surfers flocked to religion and spirituality websites leading up to Easter week, as traffic to the top religion sites totaled nearly 1.2 million unique visitors for the week ending March 24.

Leading the list of the most popular religion and spirituality properties, DaySpring Greeting Cards, an online Christian greeting card site, soared 131% in traffic to nearly 188,000 unique visitors during the week ending March 24 as compared to the previous week.

Christian Book Distributors claimed the spot as the second fastest growing religion and spirituality site, drawing 154,000 surfers, an increase of 48%. Crosswalk.com rose 22% to 175,000 unique visitors, while Gospelcom.net attracted more than 299,000 surfers, rising 20% week-over-week. Rounding out the list, traffic to Intellectual Reserve, the parent company of LDS.org and Mormon.org, jumped 13% to 410,000 unique visitors.

"More people are turning to the Web for spiritual and personal growth information," said Dawn Brozek, Internet analyst at NetRatings. "With Easter right around the corner, surfers flocked to the Web to read articles about the holiday, send inspirational online greeting cards and even access streaming video clips about the meaning of the Easter season."

Top Religious Properties, Ranked by % Growth
(Week of 3/24, U.S., Home)

+-----------------------------+-----------+--------+ 
| Property                    |  Audience | Growth |

+-----------------------------+-----------+--------+ 
| DaySpring Greeting Cards    |   188,000 |   131% | 
| Christian Book Distributors |   154,000 |    48% | 
| Crosswalk.com
|   175,000 |    22% | 
| Gospelcom.net               |   299,000 |    20% | 
| Intellectual Reserve        |   410,000 |    13% | 
+-----------------------------+-----------+--------+

Source: Nielsen//NetRatings, March 2002