Newspaper Web Sites Draw 74 Million

Newspaper Web sites drew a record-breaking average 74.4 million unique visitors per month in the first quarter of 2010, according to new figures from Nielsen Online released by the Newspaper Association of America.

That's up from 72 million unique visitors in the fourth quarter of 2009, and represents the highest quarterly average in history. In proportional terms, the first-quarter number equals 37% of all U.S. Internet users. These visitors generated a monthly average of just under 3.25 billion page views per month from January-March, spending an average 2.34 billion minutes in over 592 million sessions per month -- or an average 31:32 per person, divided among just under eight sessions per month. On average, newspaper Web site visitors viewed 44 pages per month.