• by Jack Loechner , Staff Writer @mp_research, April 18, 2006

Dominant Information Site Owned by Newspaper in Top Markets

According to the Spring 2006 Newspaper Audience Database (NADbase) report, released by the Newspaper Association of America, 116 million adults are reading the newspaper over the course of a week, and 55 million Internet users visit a newspaper Web site over the course of a month,  Unique visitors to newspaper Web sites jumped 21 percent in 2005, and page views increased by 43 percent over that same period. Newspaper web sites attracted 14 percent more 25- to 34-year-olds and 9 percent more 18- to 24-year-olds.

NAA President and CEO, John F. Sturm, said "Readership is the most comparable measure of the value of newspapers... This latest wave of... data shows once again the strong gains that our industry is making in leveraging the power of their Web sites to broaden their appeal to today's audiences."

According to the report, 78 percent of the 149 million adults who live in the top 50 markets read a newspaper over the course of five weekdays and one Sunday. In addition, 69 percent of 18- to 24-year olds in the these markets are reading a newspaper during the course of a week.

65.7 percent of consumers with household incomes of $150,000 or more read the newspaper on an average weekday, and more than 71.7 percent on an average Sunday.

Data from Nielsen//NetRatings shows that unique visitors to newspaper Web sites in 2005:

• Represented on average more than one-third of all Internet users over the course of a month
• Jumped 21 percent during the period
• Increased page views by 43 percent

Newspapers own 11 of the top 25 national news and information Web sites,

and locally, newspapers provide the dominant information site in most of the top 75 markets. In November, newspaper Web sites reached more than one-third of all Internet users.

Top 10 Newspapers Expanding Total Reach Through Their Web Sites
	Newspaper	% Increase in (25-34 Demographic
1)	The Desert Morning News ( Salt Lake City)	48.9 %
2)	Daily Herald ( Arlington Heights, Ill.)	46.3 %
3)	Tribune-Review ( Pittsburgh	42.8 %
4)	The Tampa Tribune	36.7 %
5)	The Boston Globe	30.8 %
6)	The Hartford ( Conn.) Courant	29.7 %
7)	The Star-Ledger ( Newark)	26.8 %
8)	The San Diego Union-Tribune	26.0 %
9)	The Salt Lake Tribune	25.6 %
10)	The Seattle Times	25.1 %
Source: Scarborough Research

For more of this report, please visit here.