Newspapers Debut Online Figures In USA

Many of America’s biggest newspapers have published combined online readership data and print circulation figures for the first time.

Hundreds of major titles produced joint print and online readership totals and also published information separately about their digital and print audiences as part of the Audience-FAX initiative.

For example, the Boston Globe revealed that its combined readership stood at 2.3 million, which includes people living in the home market area who read both the online and print versions.

The newspaper also reported an average of 4.2 million unique visitors per month, which comprises users located anywhere in the world.

According to the New York Times, America’s newspaper industry is hoping that the publication of digital and non-digital readership numbers will influence advertisers who have so far appeared fairly resistant to the allure of a young professional online audience.

Stephen P Hills, president of the Washington Post, remarked: “Audience-FAX is a major initiative to engage with advertisers on issues critical to their media-buying decisions.

“By combining the most trusted names in audience measurement, Audience-FAX provides data that measure the newspaper audience across multimedia platforms, allowing advertisers to make a comparable analysis across media buys for the first time in a comprehensive report.”

The integrated project is managed jointly by the Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC), Scarborough Research and the Newspaper Association of America.

Further details about Audience-Fax can be found at the Maryland Daily Record and ABC.