By: E&P Staff If there's a silver lining in the dark cloud that was last week's circulation figures, look no further than your nearest newspaper Web site.
While the Audit Bureau of Circulations' latest FAS-FAX numbers showed a 2.6% decline in daily paid circulation for U.S. newspapers, Nielsen//NetRatings reports that newspaper Web sites grew 11% year-over-year to 39.3 million unique visitors in October 2005, comprising 26% of the active U.S. Internet population.
The 11% increase exceeds the growth of the active Internet universe as a whole, which rose 3% year-over-year.
According to Nielsen//NetRatings, among online adults who read either a print or online newspaper (* see correction below), 22% have shifted their readership preferences from offline to online sources. The majority of readers, 71%, still prefer print newspapers, while 7% divide their time evenly between the two sources.
NYTimes.com was the top U.S. online newspaper site, with 11.4 million unique visitors in October 2005. USAToday.com and WashingtonPost.com took the second and third spots with 10.4 and 8.1 million unique visitors, respectively. LATimes.com and SFGate.com rounded out the top five with 3.9 million unique visitors each.
Then come Web sites for the Boston Globe, New York Daily News, Wall Street Journal, Houston Chronicle, and Chicago Sun-Times.
?The growth among newspaper Web sites demonstrates that these entities offer unique incentives to visitors,? Gerry Davison, senior media analyst, Nielsen//NetRatings, said in a statement. ?Most, if not all of the top newspaper sites offer interactivity such as blogs, podcasts, and streaming video/audio. These interactive features, combined with Internet users' thirst for up-to-date information, make newspaper Web sites an increasingly appealing choice for news.?
Top advertiser again was Vonage.
Men (56%) constituted the majority of online newspapers readership in October. People with an income between $100,000 and $150,000 and those with a bachelor's or postgraduate degree were also likely to visit online newspapers, comprising 21% and 52% of visitors, respectively.
Nielson//NetRatings is partially owned by E&P parent company VNU.
Top 10 Newspaper Web Sites* (Non-Aggregated Brands), October 2005 (U.S.)| Newspaper Site | UA (000) | Active Reach (%) | Y-O-Y Change |
| NYTimes.com | 11,405 | 7.5 | 15% |
| USAToday.com | 10,361 | 6.81 | 8% |
| WashingtonPost.com | 8,067 | 5.31 | 28% |
| LATimes.com | 3,934 | 2.59 | 23% |
| SFGate.com | 3,922 | 2.58 | 4% |
| Boston.com | 3,602 | 2.37 | -1% |
| New York Daily News | 2,870 | 1.89 | 5% |
| WSJ.com | 2,665 | 1.75 | 9% |
| Chron.com | 2,654 | 1.75 | 35% |
| Chicago Sun-Times | 2,584 | 1.7 | 20% |
| Online Newspaper Category** | 39,283 | 25.83 | 11% |
Source: Nielsen//NetRatings, November 2005
* Newspaper Web sites rankings include U.S. based online newspapers only.
** Category includes both U.S. and internationally based online newspapers.
CORRECTION: Nielsen//NetRatings released a correction to its original news release, stating that the shift from offline to online sources has occured "among online adults who read either a print or online newspaper," rather than, as previously reported, simply "among newspaper readers."
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