SOURCE: NetRatings, Inc.
January 17, 2007 09:00 ET
Online Newspaper Blog Traffic Grows 210 Percent Year Over Year, According to Nielsen//NetRatings
Men Dominate Newspaper Blog Audience
NEW YORK, NY -- (MARKET WIRE) -- January 17, 2007 -- Nielsen//NetRatings (NASDAQ: NTRT), a global
leader in Internet media and market research, announced today that Web
traffic to the blog pages of the top 10 online newspapers grew 210 percent
year over year in December (see Table 1). The overall unique audience
growth to these online newspapers was 9 percent year over year. Unique
visitors to blog pages accounted for 13 percent of their December 2006 Web
traffic, up 9 percentage points from 4 percent in December 2005.
"As Web 2.0 becomes a predominant online consumer model, traditional
publishers are adopting interactive forums like blogs," said Carolyn
Creekmore, senior director of media analytics, Nielsen//NetRatings. "It
makes perfect sense for online newspapers, where responding to a blog
posting is like writing an instant letter to the editor," she continued.
Table 1: Unique Audience Growth among Top 10 Online Newspapers and their
Blog Pages (U.S., Home and Work)
Year-Over-
UA (000) UA (000) Year
Roll-Up Dec-05 Dec-06 Growth
----------- ----------- ----------
Top 10 Online Newspapers 27,371 29,940 9%
----------- ----------- ----------
Blog Pages within Online Newspapers 1,217 3,776 210%
----------- ----------- ----------
Source: Nielsen//NetRatings, January 2007
Blog Pages Skew Male
The overall unique audience to the top 10 online newspapers skewed male,
with 60 percent men and 40 percent women (see Table 2). Among newspaper
blog pages, this skew intensified, with 66 percent men and 34 percent
women. But both men and women are contributing to unique audience growth in
this arena, with men increasing 226 percent and women increasing 183
percent year over year.
"Men tend to be both early adopters of new technologies and avid consumers
of news," said Creekmore. "That having been said, women make up slightly
more than half of the active Internet universe and we can expect them to
play an increasingly significant role in blog consumption."
Table 2: Gender Composition at Top 10 Online Newspapers and their Blog
Pages, December 2006 (U.S., Home and Work)
YOY Growth
at Blog
Gender Newspapers Blog Pages Pages
---------- ---------- ----------
Male 60% 66% 226%
---------- ---------- ----------
Female 40% 34% 183%
---------- ---------- ----------
Source: Nielsen//NetRatings, January 2007
************************************
Nielsen//NetRatings reports December 2006 data for the Top Sites by Parent
Company and Top Brands. In addition, Nielsen//NetRatings reveals the Top
Advertisers by Company for December 2006.
Nielsen//NetRatings Top 10 Web Sites by Parent Company and Top 10 Web Sites
By Brand, December 2006
Table 1. Top 10 Parent Companies, Table 2. Top 10 Brands,
Combined Home & Work Combined Home & Work
Unique Time Per Unique Time Per
Audience Person Audience Person
Parent (000) (hh:mm:ss) Brand (000) (hh:mm:ss)
------- -------- ------- --------
1. Microsoft 120,930 2:03:01 1. Yahoo! 110,687 3:02:36
------- -------- ------- --------
2. Google 112,200 1:14:52 2. Google 108,232 1:02:03
------- -------- ------- --------
3. Yahoo! 111,184 3:02:27 3. Microsoft 98,625 0:44:24
------- -------- ------- --------
4. Time Warner 107,555 4:14:45 4. MSN/ 98,203 1:46:41
Windows Live
------- -------- ------- --------
5. eBay 73,763 1:38:32 5. AOL 80,807 5:06:12
------- -------- ------- --------
6. News Corp. 70,230 1:37:55 6. eBay 66,193 1:37:45
Online
------- -------- ------- --------
7. InterActive 59,259 0:25:26 7. Fox 61,450 1:44:57
Corp Interactive
Media
------- -------- ------- --------
8. Amazon 56,881 0:31:57 8. Amazon 50,550 0:31:13
------- -------- ------- --------
9. New York 44,240 0:18:09 9. Real 43,626 0:40:37
Times Company Network
------- -------- ------- --------
10. Walt Disney 44,094 0:31:11 10. Apple 43,280 1:21:50
Internet Group
------- -------- ------- --------
Example: The data indicates that 44.1 million home and work Internet users
visited at least one of the Walt Disney Internet Group-owned sites or
launched a Walt Disney Internet Group-owned application during the month,
and each person spent, on average, a total of 31 minutes and 11 seconds at
one or more of their sites or applications.
A parent company is defined as a consolidation of multiple domains and URLs
owned by a single entity. A brand is defined as a consolidation of multiple
domains and URLs that has a consistent collection of branded content.
Nielsen//NetRatings AdRelevance Top 10 Advertisers, December 2006
Top advertisers, ranked by estimated spending, are based on data from
AdRelevance, Nielsen//NetRatings' advertising research service. An
impression is counted as the number of times an ad is rendered for viewing.
Top 10 Advertisers by Estimated Spending
Total
Estimated Impressions
Advertiser Spending (000)
------------ ------------
1. Experian Group Limited $ 90,284,000 34,649,333
------------ ------------
2. AT&T Corp. $ 39,857,400 10,535,951
------------ ------------
3. NexTag, Inc. $ 32,120,900 15,221,834
------------ ------------
4. Verizon Communications, Inc. $ 31,759,200 8,962,028
------------ ------------
5. Time Warner Inc. $ 27,288,500 6,948,177
------------ ------------
6. Vonage Holdings Corp $ 24,174,400 7,533,227
------------ ------------
7. Low Rate Source $ 17,920,600 6,792,963
------------ ------------
8. Bank of America Corporation $ 16,503,600 7,536,428
------------ ------------
9. Blockbuster Inc. $ 16,056,700 7,309,783
------------ ------------
10. eBay, Inc. $ 15,566,900 2,606,156
------------ ------------
Estimated spending reflects CPM-based advertising online, and excludes
search-based advertising, paid fee services, performance-based campaigns,
sponsorships, barters, partnership advertising, advertorials, promotions
and e-mail. Impressions reported exclude house ads, which are ads that run
on an advertiser's own or related property and co-branding relationships.
Example: An estimated 2.6 billion eBay, Inc. ads were rendered for viewing
at the cost of approximately $15.6 million during the surfing period.
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 site-centric 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.
Editor's Note: Please source all data to Nielsen//NetRatings.