Stunning Online Growth For Magazines & Newspapers
The top 320
magazine web sites received on average 67.5 million unique visitors
per month during the fourth quarter of 2007�an 8.1% jump from the
same period in 2006, according to data collected by Nielsen Online
and compiled by the Magazine Publishers of America. That's a faster
rate of growth than the Internet overall, where the total U.S.
online population rose 2.4% year-over-year.
These figures
mean that magazine web sites reached almost 42% of the total U.S.
online population of about 160 million in the fourth quarter, an
increase of 7.1% over last year's reach. These users generated 434.4
million visits in the fourth quarter�up 12.3%. While time spent
increased 5.5%, to an average 1.78 billion minutes per month,
implying an average visit duration of just over four minutes.
In terms of
unique visitors per month, magazine web sites bested newspapers,
where the total unique audience for newspaper sites increased 9% in
the fourth quarter to an average 62.8 million per month.
These figures,
also collected by Nielsen Online, show that 39% of all active web
users visited newspaper sites during the fourth quarter, yielding
over 3 billion impressions�up 7.3% from the fourth quarter of 2006.