WASHINGTONPOST.com WINS ANOTHER AUDIENCE PRIZE

By: Carl Sullivan Newspaper Sites Compared By Local Reader Penetration



Consistently ranked one of the top newspaper Web sites in the country,
washingtonpost.com wins another audience trophy. The site had the
highest percentage of local adults logging on monthly last year,
according to The Media Audit, a service of International Demographics
Inc., Houston.



For 1999, 29.5% of Washington-area adults logged onto
washingtonpost.com, according to Media Audit's telephone surveys that
ask participants if they've visited sites within the past 30 days.
Rounding out the top 10 newspaper sites with local penetration were:



2. Austin (Texas) American-Statesman's austin360.com
(24.9%)

3. The (Raleigh, N.C.) News & Observer's news-observer.com
(21.4%)

4. The Charlotte Observer's charlotte.com (20.5%)

5. The Sacramento (Calif.) Bee's sacbee.com (18.4%)

6. The Boston Globe's boston.com (18.2%)

7. Omaha (Neb.) World-Herald's omaha.com (18.2%)

8. The Orlando (Fla.) Sentinel's orlandosentinel.com
(17.9%)

9. The Virginian Pilot's hamptonroads.com (17.7%)

10. Wisconsin State Journal and The Capital Times'
madison.com (17.6%)



The Media Audit compares TV, radio, newspaper, and Web site penetration
in 83 markets across the country. Over 130,000 adults across the country
are surveyed every year, twice a year in large markets and once in
smaller markets.



President Phillip Beswick says about 35 newspapers currently purchase
Media Audit's syndicated research, which has compared media in local
markets for 29 years. The research allows newspapers to see how they do
among various market segments, like women, yuppies, and college
graduates.



For example, a recent report for the Hearst Corp. of New York showed
that 32% of online yuppies visited Hearst newspaper Web sites in the
company's major markets: Albany, N.Y.; Houston; San Antonio, Texas;
Seattle; and San Francisco. Thirty-four percent of yuppies in those same
markets read Hearst print newspapers, giving Heart a net yuppie
penetration of 53%.



'You start to see how important the dot com is to the newspaper because
it's bringing in a huge segment of this important audience,' Beswick
says.



Beswick says his service serves a different function than the panel-

based Web researchers like Media Metrix and Nielsen//Netratings. 'We're
surveying all media in a market,' says.



Still, a trusted panel-based survey of Internet use is 'absolutely
necessary,' according to Beswick. 'It is something the advertiser needs
in order to be insured his investments are being spent properly. Nielsen
does it for TV. Arbitron does it for radio. The Web needs the same.'



A number of online publishers contend that there are flaws in the
current system. See link to 0609 naa>>.