Newspapers see digital traffic growth

Online metrics provider comScore has reported that last September set new records for online traffic to newspapers' digital sites.  The tracking numbers showed that 141 million U.S. adults visited a newspaper's web site or used a newspaper mobile app.  That's 71% of online adults, and more than half of all U.S. adults.

Growth in newspaper traffic is up across all devices, with some of the most rapid growth occurring in the use of mobile devices for news.  And in what is a measure of good news for newspapers, mobile seems to be driving new readers to newspapers' digital outlets, and encouraging new patterns of online news reading.  The comScore report indicated that the number of US online adults who report using only mobile devices to get news has jumped 22% in the last three months, and now accounts for 23% of newspapers' total digital audience.  When you add in those using mobile as well desktops and laptops, 55% of total newspaper readership used newspapers' digital content.

These results support some of the findings reported by the Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project.  They found that half of American adults cite the Internet as a main source for national and international news, and that 23% of adults report getting news on at least two mobile devices.   Mobile devices, particularly tablets, also seem to be impacting news consumption.  Since getting tablets, 31% report spending more time with news, 31% are turning to new sources for news, and 43% are adding to their news consumption.


Sources -  Newspapers Set Digital Traffic Record,  MediaDailyNews
Reading, writing, and research in the digital age, research presentation, Pew Internet & American Life Project