Web captures newspaper readers By Frank Barnako, MarketWatchLast...

Web captures newspaper readers

By Frank Barnako, MarketWatch
Last Update: 9:12 AM ET June 17, 2005
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WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- One out of five newspaper readers who go online have begun to rely more on the Web edition of the paper than the "dead trees" version.

Nielsen/NetRatings (NTRT: news, chart, profile) reported research that 21 percent of Web users who read newspapers have transferred "primarily" to online, while 72 percent still rely on print.

Gerry Davidson, senior media analyst for the research firm, said, "Accordingly, many online editions now feature original content and have developed a strategy that includes online message boards and editorial blogs which leverage the medium's strengths of interactivity and immediacy."

Nielsen/NetRatings also released traffic information for the top online newspapers for May showing NYTimes.com (NYT: news, chart, profile) first with an audience of 11.3 million unique visitors, followed by USAToday.com (GCI: news, chart, profile) (9.2 million), WashingtonPost.com (WPO: news, chart, profile) (7.4 million), LATimes.com (TRB: news, chart, profile) (3.8 million), and SFGate.com (3.4 million).

"Not surprisingly, the top online newspapers tend to be located in metropolitan cities where both population and broadband access rates are higher, which correlates to greater Web page consumption," Davidson said.

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