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

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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.