Internet Marketing

Online News Readers In Top Local Markets Most Loyal To Major Local Newspaper Web Sites, According To Nielsen//Netratings

Nielsen//NetRatings Launches New Research Service Providing Internet Audience Measurement of Local Markets

NEW YORK September 22, 2005 Nielsen//NetRatings, a global leader in Internet media and market research, reported today that online readers in nine out of the top 10 local markets were loyal to the citys top newspaper Web site in July 2005 (see Table 1). On average, the top local newspaper Web sites reached 19.5 percent of a citys active Internet audience across the top 10 local markets. The findings were derived from the new Nielsen//NetRatings MegaView Local service.
The MegaView Local report ranked the No. 1 newspaper Web site within each of the top 10, out of approximately 100, local markets available in the service. The report compared each newspaper sites local and national reach, or site penetration in the active Internet universe.

WashingtonPost.com reached 30.1 percent of the D.C. area Internet users, followed by Boston.com and AJC.com capturing the attention of 28.3 percent and 26.4 percent of their local Internet audiences, respectively. NYTimes.com and ChicagoTribune.com rounded out the top five, attracting 21.9 percent and 21 percent of the areas Web surfers, respectively.

Philadelphia was the only exception to the trend, where USATODAY.com, a national newspaper site, reached the most online news readers, with 9.6 percent of the local active Internet audience. Philly.com, the site for Philadelphia Inquirer, was the second top newspaper site viewed, attracting 9.2 percent of the local audience.

City newspapers have successfully built an effective online presence as the source for local and national news, said Charles Buchwalter, vice president, client analytics, Nielsen//NetRatings. Newspapers have broadened their reach by growing their audiences news consumption from a print-only readership to an online edition, knowing that Internet-savvy users are sometimes only consuming news online. In June 2005, Nielsen//NetRatings reported that a fifth of Web users who read newspapers rely primarily on Web editions, according to the @Plan Summer 2005 release. Seven percent of online users who consume newspapers split their time evenly between the online and offline editions, while a majority, or 72 percent, of online users still access print editions.

Select Local Newspapers Resonate Nationally

In examining the online newspaper consumption habits of the top 10 local markets, Nielsen//NetRatings found that NYTimes.com, WashingtonPost.com and LATimes.com had the greatest national reach out of the No. 1 local market newspapers (see Table 2). National reach measures the overall site traffic in comparison to the active Internet audience in the U.S.

NYTimes.com attracted more than nine percent of the national active Internet population, relative to its 22 percent penetration in the New York local market during July 2005. WashingtonPost.com reached nearly six percent of the national audience, compared to LATimes.com, which attracted more than three percent of the national audience.

Buchwalter continued, While city newspapers inherently focus on covering the community at-large, a few dailies have successfully extended their appeal beyond city boundaries to attract an audience interested in that markets current events, columnists, special features, and coverage of national and international news.

Introducing MegaView Local Service These findings were culled from the newly launched Nielsen//NetRatings MegaView Local service that reports on Web site traffic behavior and demographic data for the top 100 local markets. The research enables publishers, agencies and marketers to enhance their targeted strategy for increased online sales through DMA and site rankings, comparative DMA benchmarking and demographic insights. Custom reports can be conducted to delve deeper into unduplicated and overlapping audiences within DMAs, inmarket and out-of-market analysis and site demographic drill downs.

Publishers, agencies and marketers can access reports that enable them to:

Benchmark local market and national visitation, reach and consumption habits

Track demographic breakdowns by Web surfers and page consumption

Compare site traffic metrics between local markets

Examine visitor behavior according to top sites

Measure local market visits for comparable sites

The MegaView Local service is based on the Nielsen//NetRatings MegaPanel, which provides businesses with the most comprehensive intelligence on local market site visitors by linking past surfing behavior from the panel's large sample with current opinions through real-time surveys. By combining these survey results with the actual surfing habits of the respondents, advertisers, agencies and marketers are able to better understand how site visitors in local markets are spending their time online.

MegaView Local is the fifth product introduced from MegaPanel, an online syndicated suite of services that provides comprehensive Internet market research for key vertical industries including financial services, search, retail, travel and local markets.

Availability of Nielsen//NetRatings Online Local Market Research

Nielsen//NetRatings MegaView Local is now available. Please contact a local Nielsen//NetRatings sales representative at http://netratings.com/contact.jsp for more information about the services.

About Nielsen//NetRatings

NetRatings, Inc. (Nasdaq: NTRT) delivers leading Internet media and market research solutions, marketed globally under the Nielsen//NetRatings brand. With high quality, technology-driven products and services, Nielsen//NetRatings is the global standard for Internet audience measurement and premier source for online advertising intelligence, enabling clients to make informed business decisions regarding their Internet and digital strategies. The Nielsen//NetRatings portfolio includes panel-based and sitecentric Internet audience measurement services, online advertising intelligence, user lifestyle and demographic data, e-commerce and transaction metrics, and custom data, research and analysis. For more information, please visit www.nielsen-netratings.com.

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