TV WEBSITES CAN BEAT NEWSPAPERS

Local newspapers have the leading websites in 74 of 81 metropolitan markets surveyed regularly by The Media Audit. But TV station websites have the largest audience in five markets and websites operated by a combination of TV station and local newspaper lead in two markets, according to a newly released Media Audit survey (March 2005).

“Newspapers still dominate as they did the last time we assembled this data in 2001 but beyond that the picture has changed substantially,” says Bob Jordan, president of International Demographics, Inc., a market research firm that produces The Media Audit.

For several years The Media Audit data has shown the Washington Post to have the most successful “local” newspaper website among the markets surveyed. “The Post is still number one with a rating of 40.5 percent,” says Jordan, “But, now it has a competitor.”

Following the Post is WRAL-TV which serves the Raleigh-Durham market and has succeeded in attracting 39.0 percent of the adults in its immediate market to its website.

“WRAL-TV, KUSA-TV in Denver, KXAS-TV in Dallas, KTHV-TV in Little Rock and some others make it clear that newspapers are not going to ‘automatically’ dominate any market," Jordan says. "We still believe that content is the primary draw of a website but we can’t ignore the marketing pull of TV. If a newspaper promotes its website only in its newspaper, we believe, an aggressive TV station website can draw a larger adult audience.”

In Denver, for example, "the very aggressive Rocky Mountain News and Denver Post websites are battling for ‘second’ place in the market behind KUSA-TV," Jordan says.

In some markets where newspaper websites lead, a local TV station is running a very close second. In Columbia, SC, The State newspaper website attracts 22.0 percent of adults but WIS-TV draws 21.2. The Detroit News website leads with 16.9 but WDIV-TV attracts 16.1 percent.