• by Jack Loechner , Staff Writer @mp_research, February 21, 2008

Rochester Ranks #1 in Local Print and Web Newspaper Penetration

According to The Scarborough Newspaper Penetration Report, highlighting newspaper audience ratings for newspapers and their websites across the 81 local markets measured by the company in 2007, the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle ranks number one in local market adult penetration for print audience and Integrated Newspaper Audience (the weekly net unduplicated audience of the printed newspaper and its website). Seventy-nine percent of adults in the Rochester, NY local market read the printed version of the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle during the past week. Together with its website the publication reaches 81% of the Rochester market on a weekly basis.

According to the report, the Washingtonpost.com is the newspaper website with the greatest local penetration, with 22 percent of adults in the Washington D.C. local market visited the website during the past week.

Gary Meo, senior vice president, print and Internet services, Scarborough Research, says "The Rochester Democrat & Chronicle has a long tradition of service to its community, and adults in Rochester rely on it...Washingtonpost.com is considered one of the industry's premier newspaper websites... "

According to the report, the weekly audience (% of adults in the local market who read or looked into the printed paper during the past five weekdays or past Sunday) is ranked by print, website and total as follows:

Weekly Print Audience

• Rochester Democrat & Chronicle, Rochester, NY, 79%
• Gannett Wisconsin Newspapers, Green Bay, WI, 73%
• Des Moines Register, Des Moines, IA, 70%
• Syracuse Post Standard, Syracuse, NY, 67%
• Richmond Times Dispatch, Richmond, VA, 66%

Weekly Website Audience

• Washingtonpost.com, Washington D.C., 22%
• Austin360/Statesman.com,  Austin, TX, 19%
• 3t. CincyPost.com/Enquirer.com/Cincinnati.com, Cincinnati, OH 18%
• 3t. SignOnSanDiego.com/UnionTrib.com, San Diego, CA 18%
• 3t. AJC.com/AccessAtlanta.com, Atlanta, GA 18%

Integrated (Print + Web) Newspaper Audience Ranking

• Rochester Democrat & Chronicle; DemocratandChronicle.com, Rochester, NY, 81%
• Gannett Wisconsin Newspapers, Green Bay, WI, 76%
• Des Moines Register; DesMoinesRegister.com, Des Moines, IA, 71%
• Richmond Times Dispatch; TimesDispatch.com, Richmond, VA, 69%
• Syracuse Post Standard; Syracuse.com, Syracuse, NY, 68%

In addition, The Media Audit, reporting for the same period, says that nine daily newspapers have attracted more than a half million net readers to their websites and 37 dailies have used website gains to achieve market penetration of more than 70 percent, according to their new research. Those that attracted 500,000 or more readers to the net unduplicated reach of the newspaper via their websites are:

• New York Times with an additional 1,570,400 visitors that don't read the print edition of the paper;
• Newsday (Long Island), 1,149,500
• New York Post, 867,800
• The New York Daily News, 840,200
• Star Ledger/Jersey Journal, 734,700
• Chicago Tribune, 661,900
• Los Angeles Times, 598,400
• San Francisco Chronicle, 587,800
• The Palm Beach Post, 511,700

For more information on this and additional newspaper reports, please visit Scarborough here, or The Media Audit here.