By: Jay DeFoore A new report by Internet media and market research firm Nielsen//NetRatings finds that the country's major metropolitan newspaper Web sites have built up a loyal following in their local markets.
On average, the top local newspaper Web sites reached 19.5% of a city's active Internet audience across the top 10 local markets studied during July 2005.
WashingtonPost.com led the way with a 30.1% reach of its local Internet users, followed by Boston.com (28.3%) and AJC.com (26.4%). NYTimes.com and ChicagoTribune.com round out the top five, attracting 21.9% and 21% of their area's Web users, respectively.
Out of the top 10 local markets studied, Philadelphia was the only exception to the trend of local newspaper dominance. USAToday.com reaches 9.6% of online news readers in Philadelphia, barely edging out Knight Ridder's Philly.com, the Web site for the Inquirer and Daily News, which attracted 9.2% of the same audience.
"City newspapers have successfully built an effective online presence as the source for local and national news," Charles Buchwalter, Nielsen//NetRatings' vice president, client analytics, said in a statement. ?Newspapers have broadened their reach by growing their audience?s news consumption from a print-only readership to an online edition, knowing that Internet-savvy users are sometimes only consuming news online."
Additionally, the study found that NYTimes.com, WashingtonPost.com, and LATimes.com had the greatest national reach out of the No. 1 local market newspapers. NYTimes.com has a national reach of 9.3%, followed by WashingtonPost.com's 5.7% and LATimes.com?s 3.1%. USAToday.com reaches 7.1% of the national audience.
The study?s findings, released Thursday, were derived from the new Nielsen//NetRatings MegaView Local service, which combines survey results with actual surfing habits.
Nielsen is owned by E&P parent company VNU.
| Local Market | Top Newspaper site | Local Mkt. Reach (%) |
| Washington, D.C.* | WashingtonPost.com | 30.1 |
| Boston* | Boston.com | 28.3 |
| Atlanta | AJC.COM | 26.4 |
| New York | NYTimes.com | 21.9 |
| Chicago | ChicagoTribune.com | 21.0 |
| Seattle-Tacoma | SeattleTimes.com | 16.7 |
| Dallas/Ft. Worth | DallasNews.com | 15.9 |
| Los Angeles | LATimes.com | 15.4 |
| San Francisco* | SFGate.com | 13.9 |
| Philadelphia | USAToday.com | 9.6 |
Source: Nielsen//NetRatings MegaView Local, September 2005* The Washington, DC local market includes Hagerstown, MD. The Boston local market includes Manchester. The San Francisco Bay Area local market includes Oakland and San Jose.
Comments
No comments on this item Please log in to comment by clicking here