NAA: Newspaper sites’ audience continues expansion

New data released at the Newspaper Association of America’s annual convention in New York shows that the audience for newspaper Web sites is growing at nearly twice the rate of the overall online audience.

A Nielsen//NetRatings NetView custom analysis reported an average of more than 59 million people visited newspaper Web sites each month during the first quarter, a record number that represents a 5.3 percent increase over the same period a year ago.

During the same time period, the overall Internet audience grew 2.7 percent.

“Newspaper publishers have aggressively transformed their business models, continually providing groundbreaking content to consumers with their expanding digital portfolios,” said NAA President and Chief Executive Officer John F. Sturm.

The study finds that 11.9 percent of newspaper site visitors have an annual household income in excess of $150,000, compared with less than one in 10 of the overall Internet audience.

Other findings include:

•A little more than 88 percent of newspaper Web site visitors made a purchase online in the last six months compared with 78.9 percent of the overall Internet audience.

•Forty-one percent of newspapers’ Web site visitors are employed in professional or managerial occupations compared with 32.7 percent of the overall Internet population.