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The stats don't work - the news web audience in the UK

Written by Martin Belam
Published 25 April, 2003
Categories: Newspapers, Web

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Newmediazero has published another one of those web traffic stories where the figures don't add up. The headline is that "US news sites attract British users seeking Iraq war latest". But the figures they quote don't seem to have any clarity on geo-location. The large rise in users to CNN.com and news.google.com are the given reasons for this. Yet they give usage figures for news.google.com which are a tenth of the usage figures they give for BBC News Online. Which doesn't square with the headline in my - obvious vested interest - book. I don't see in those numbers that more British people were looking at U.S. websites.

The article goes on to report that:

The news sector as a whole has benefited from surfers' thirst for war news, recording a unique audience of 6,038,147 for March, up 26% on the previous month, say figures from Nielsen//NetRatings

And then says that "the most popular newspaper site with 11,335,818 users" is guardianunlimited. So nearly twice as much as the figure quoted for the 'news' sector as a whole? Now, I love mediamonkey as much as the next new media geek, but if Newmediazero are claiming these are UK usage figures it implies that more people in this country read the Guardian Online than the 3.5 million that buy The Sun in print. Er, hello?

Posted by Martin Belam, April 25, 2003
Read more posts on currybetdotnet about: Newspapers, Web

The views expressed on currybetdotnet are my own, and do not reflect the views of my current or former employers.

1 comment so far

Mike commented on April 25, 2003:

Oh dear, there they go again...

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About Martin Belam

I'm a London-based internet consultant and writer, with 8 years experience in product management, information architecture, and user experience design for global brands like Sony, Vodafone, The Guardian and the BBC. I specialise in advising on search, widgets, RSS, online news publishing and bulk email delivery.
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