• by April 5, 2002

Nielsen//NetRatings reports that traffic to major online news dailies spiked in traffic during the week ending March 31, as Internet surfers at work logged on to read national, local, and business news.

ChicagoTribune.com claimed the top spot as the fastest growing online newspaper, attracting 479,000 unique visitors and gaining 65% more traffic than the previous week. Following closely at No. 2, NYPost.com soared 59%, drawing 817,000 office workers to their site. Another New York daily, NYTimes.com, jumped 24% to more than 2.2 million surfers. Rounding out the list, WSJ.com recorded a 22% increase to 399,000 visitors, while LATimes.com rose 21% to 618,000.

"Online newspapers are able to pack the power of breaking information with deep coverage and insight," said Jarvis Mak, senior Internet media analyst, NetRatings. "Their ability to think more like a 24-hour news radio station and less like a once-a-day news source has delivered a growing audience."