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Guess where 40 percent of Web traffic went each month in the third quarter of 2009?
I'll give a second to consider it ...
Give up?
The answer is newspaper Web sites.
“An average 74 million people visited a newspaper Web site each month in the third quarter of 2009, equaling just under 40 percent of all active U.S. Internet users,” MediaPost’s Erik Sass reported. The data, Sass said, comes from the Newspaper Association of America, which cited researched by Nielsen Online.
UPDATE: A reader pointed out in the comments section that my claim in the opening sentence is incorrect. The commenter said, "The number of visitors to newspaper sites equals 40% of the known internet connections in the US. That DOES NOT EQUAL 40% of all web traffic!" (You can find the rest of his comment, including his opinion of my editorial judgment, in the comments section below.)
This marks the highest number of visitors in a quarter, since Nielsen began tracking this information in 2004. MediaPost noted that this milestone is especially encouraging for newspapers, because this was an off-year, meaning there were no big news events like the Olympics or a presidential election.
UPDATE: Online readership may have flourished in the third quarter, but overall sales of hard copy newspapers dropped sharply. Newspaper circulation fell 10 percent, between Jan. 1 and Sept. 30, compared to the same time last year, according to The New York Times.
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Good list, tho a bit US-centric. The world is full of unmitigated PR gaffes; Renault's F1 race fixing; UK PM Gordon Brow...
Comments (3)
Makes sense. Blogs need places to link to; newspaper Web sites, for the most part, have the goods. Content is (presumably) vetted and verified.
So if you're a blogger, why not read newspaper Web sites?
Posted by Daniel Honigman | November 2, 2009 2:10 PM
Posted on November 2, 2009 14:10
Interesting stat to be sure. Shows how inept newspaper execs are. They are cannibalizing their own print editions with online channels and don't know how to make money from the online part. Then they lament about the decline of newsprint, while some even want government bailouts. Too bad you can't just acquire complete newsrooms, get rid of ink-stained executives, the printing presses, the delivery trucks and the associated labor contracts. Then deliver solid news the way its meant to be consumed today - electronically.
Posted by Anonymous | October 27, 2009 3:30 PM
Posted on October 27, 2009 15:30
The number of visitors to newspaper sites equals 40% of the known internet connections in the US. That DOES NOT EQUAL 40% of all web traffic! That's not what MediaPost said, either, their headline was "40% Of Net Users Visit Newspaper Sites." It's an impressive stat on its own, probably, but your attempts to jazz it up have made for a wildly inaccurate claim.
Posted by Chris | October 27, 2009 2:37 PM
Posted on October 27, 2009 14:37