December 2008
Bumper online figures for newspapers
by Staff, Brand Republic 16-Dec-08, 11:25
More Britons than ever visited newspaper websites in November 2008 according to research from Nielsen Online.
The research by Nielsen found that, in November 2008, 10.3m Britons visited at least one of the ten most popular newspaper websites compared to 8.3m last year, representing growth in online audience of 23%.
Nielsen said the bumper year for UK newspapers online underscored their growing importance to advertisers. Despite having the lowest online year-on-year growth of the top UK newspapers, The Guardian remains the most popular online paper, with 3.5m unique UK visitors. The Metro was the only regional paper in the list with 0.6m.
Alex Burmaster, Communications Director, Nielsen Online, said: "Regardless of what's happening with print circulations, the major papers have had a fantastic year online, all experiencing strong growth in audience numbers.
"It acts as a reminder of how important a part online plays in sustaining the size of audiences the newspapers deliver to advertisers".
Magazine websites also showed spectacular growth. In the same period, over 5.5m Britons visited at least one of the ten most popular magazine websites compared to 4.3m last year – growth of 30%.
The ten most popular magazine websites come from nine different sectors with only technology having more than one showing. Motoring magazine, Auto Trader, was by far the most popular magazine website with 1.8m unique British visitors followed by Which? with 1.1m.
Burmaster said: "Whereas the highest-circulation print magazines are dominated by retailer publications and TV listings, the most popular magazines online cover an extremely wide array of sectors from auto sales, consumer reviews, food and TV to listings, science, technology, music and geography.
"Despite this diversity, there is consistency in that almost all the leading magazine sites have had a large increase in their online audience over the past year. As with the newspapers, this provides some great news for publishers in contrast to what's happening with print circulations. Furthermore, it shows the key part online will play in the future strategies of print titles in terms of generating advertising revenue."