'Times-Picayune' Tops in Market Reach With Combined Print, Web

By: Jennifer Saba The Times-Picayune in New Orleans still reigns supreme with the highest unduplicated market reach, according to a new study from The Media Audit.

The Times-Picayune reaches 85.8% of New Orleans adults -- 718,443 -- based on past 30-day Web site usage to Nola.com and the monthly readers of the print edition.

In June, the Media Audit said that Nola.com reached the most adults in its market.

Its sister publication The Post-Standard in Syracuse, N.Y., also owned by Advance Newspapers, ranked second. The Post-Standard reaches 84.9% of adults in the Syracuse metro area with its unduplicated monthly print and online readership.

The other papers that made the top 10 list with unduplicated market reach according to Media Audit's data is The Buffalo (N.Y.) News with an 83.3% reach; the Omaha (Neb.) World-Herald with a reach of 82.2%; the Rochester (N.Y.) Democrat and Chronicle with 80.9%; the San Antonio Express-News with 80.6%; the Peoria (Ill.) Journal Star at 80.4%; The Blade in Toledo, at 78.8%; The Indianapolis Star at 77.8%; the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette in Little Rock at 77.5%; and The Courier Journal in Louisville, Ky., with a reach of 77.4%.

The Media Audit collected data as of April 13 from surveys in 88 U.S. markets.

Overall, the Houston-based company found that 45.6% of adults nationwide are not exposed to the Sunday newspaper and that 54.6% are not exposed to a daily newspaper on a typical weekday.

However many of those adults -- more than 25% who do not read a daily newspaper -- are checking out automotive and online recruitment sites. For example, the Media Audit found that one in five visitors to the Omaha World Herald's Web site who do not read the print edition go to the automotive section of the site. Eighty-five percent of visitors to the auto section are adults 18 to 49.

Meanwhile, the Media Audit studied general usage of the Internet over a three-year period and found that 23% of adults go online between midnight and 8 a.m., up from 19.4% in 2006. Almost 27% of adults who go online do so between 10 p.m. and midnight, up from 23.6% in 2006. The greatest number of users, no surprise, is between 1 p.m. and 6 p.m. -- 61% of adults.