• by Jack Loechner , Staff Writer, March 12, 2008

Celebrities Top Politicians in News and Media Web Visits

Hitwise recently reported that The market share of U.S. visits to the News and Media category increased 22 percent in the third week of February compared to the same week in 2007. The News and Media category reached its highest peak in the last 36 month period in this and the previous week.

The Print category, comprised of online magazines and newspaper websites, increased 23 percent for the week ending Feb. 23, 2008, compared to the same week during the previous year. The most visited website within the Print category last week was The New York Times, with five percent of the market share of visits.

Other top Print website information in the report included:

• People.com which received three percent of the U.S. visits
• The Washington Post which received two percent of visits.
• The New York Times posted the largest year-over-year traffic growth among the top five websites in the Print category with a 50 percent increase in U.S. visits.
• The website of New York magazine website experienced a 336 percent increase in market share of visits over the previous week with the "Lohan..." spread. 

Heather Dougherty, Research Director, Hitwise, said that "...Although the battle for the presidential nominations is certainly top of mind for many, celebrity news provides a refuge for less-heated debates."

The search term "lunar eclipse" was tops among all News and Media websites while "Jennifer Lopez" was the top search term among News and Media Print websites.  Barack Obama made up three of top 10 searches among both categories as did American Idol and Dancing with the Stars with two top 10 searches.