US newspapers' online audiences grew about 6 percent last year, an industry group reported on Thursday, a rare bit of good news for an industry struggling to adapt as readers and advertising dollars continue to migrate online.
Web sites run by newspapers had an average of 60 million unique US visitors per month last year, up from 56.4 million the year before, according to data released by Newspaper Association of America (NAA) and compiled by Nielsen Online, a Web audience measurement agency owned by the Nielsen Co.
But with the growth in the total online audience, the online reach of newspapers grew somewhat less, with 38 percent of all active online users visiting newspaper Web sites last year, up from 36 percent in 2006.
Many newspapers have been adding online features such as video, blogs, jazzier graphics, online community features and links to other Web sites in an effort to lure in more readers and compete with other outlets of information online, including blogs and portals like Yahoo Inc.
Daytime visitors are very important for newspapers since online traffic is highest then, as many people log on from work. Nielsen Online said its measurements accounted for people logging on from work or home.
Last year, the New York Times scrapped a two-year effort to charge online visitors for access to certain parts of its Web site, hoping that the additional traffic would result in higher online advertising revenues.
"News organizations were very aggressive in 2007 in adapting new tools to their sites," said Lee Rainie, director of the Pew Internet and American Life Project. "Everybody's adding either connections to blogs, as well as encouraging some staffers to blog themselves."
Revenues from online advertising have been growing at newspapers, but not yet fast enough to replace the declines in their traditional print ad business.
Total newspaper ad revenue fell 7.4 percent in the third quarter of last year, the latest period for which the NAA has reported figures. Within that total, print ad revenues fell 9 percent to US$10.1 billion, while online revenues rose 21 percent to US$773 million, NAA said.
Nielsen and comScore Inc compile data on online audiences using panels. However, many newspapers and other publishers of Web sites take issue with some of those measurements, saying their own internal data show higher numbers of visitors to their Web sites.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique