US newspaper websites see higher traffic

NEILSON ONLINE reported Tuesday that the number of wibblers visiting the top 10 US newspaper websites in December grew 16 per cent from last year to more than 40 million.

The top five US newspaper websites in December were the New York Times which had 18.2 million unique visitors for modest growth of six per cent, USA Today with 11.4 million, an increase of 15 per cent, the Washington Post with 9.5 million for growth of 12 per cent, the Los Angeles Times with 8.0 million, up a whopping 73 per cent, and the Wall Street Journal with 7.2 million, a healthy rise of 34 per cent, likely driven by the recent economic turmoil.

A New York City tabloid, the Daily News, drew 5.9 million unique visitors in December to rack up smashing online growth of 99 per cent. Only one of the top 10 US newspapers, the Boston Globe, saw its count of online readership fall from the prior year, with 4.1 million, a drop of six per cent.

The total number of visits to the top 10 US newspaper websites in December grew 27 per cent year over year to reach 252.7 million, according to Neilson Online.

It also said that the average US wibbler prowled the web 59 times in December, or almost twice daily, hit 108 different domains and spent nearly 36 hours online during the month, accessing 2,353 webpages but spending only an average of 55 seconds viewing each page. µ

L'Inq
AFP