• October 5, 2006

There is good news for newspapers--online. Newspapers' unique online readers increased 31 percent in the first half of 2006 compared to the same period last year, according to findings of the Newspaper Audience Database, released by the Newspaper Association of America. Combining information from Scarborough Research and Nielsen//NetRatings, the NAD shows that newspaper sites averaged about 55.5 million unique visitors a month during the first half of 2006, compared with 42.4 million a month in the first six months of 2005. With unique monthly visitors ranging between 54 million and 58 million, newspaper sites averaged around 2.6 billion page views a month during the first half of 2006. The New York Times led national papers in online audience, with a monthly average of just over 12 million unique visitors and 298 million page views, versus 8.6 million unique visitors and 129 million page views for runner-up USA Today.

The NAD also shows a growing affinity for online newspapers among 18- to-34-year-olds, with 40 percent of all online visitors under the age of 35. An online presence boosts newspapers' total reach among 18- to-24-year-olds by 16 percent; for 25- to-34-year-olds, it's a 19 percent rise.

--Erik Sass