Online newspaper readership up 11 percent

Newspaper Web sites readership grew 11 percent year-over-year to 39.3 million unique visitors in October 2005.

Analyst firm Nielsen//NetRatings said Tuesday the 11-percent increase exceeds the growth of the active Internet universe as a whole, which rose 3 percent year-over-year.

This research follows on the heels of last week's news of the recent six-month decline in average weekday print circulation among America's top 20 largest newspapers, as reported by the Audit Bureau of Circulations.

Nielsen reported that among newspaper readers 22 percent have shifted their readership preferences from offline to online sources. The majority of readers, 71 percent, still prefer print newspapers, while 7 percent divide their time evenly between the two sources.

Copyright 2005 by United Press International

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