WebProNews

Newsprint has plenty of readers for its online outposts, with Internet users reading newspapers in their browsers in growing numbers.

Newspaper Readers Do It Online

The readership for online papers has grown so fast, it has nearly doubled the growth rate of the overall Internet audience.

Nielsen//NetRatings found more than 59 million people read newspaper websites each month during the first quarter of the year, according to paidContent. That representated a 5.3 percent increase from the same period last year.

In comparison, the overall Internet audience increased by 2.7 percent. The Newspaper Association of America hopes this information can spur advertisers to spend more with newspaper websites.

PaidContent noted the research touted the potential for the newspaper audience for marketers. Online paper readers make purchases online at a greater rate than the general Internet audience. Also, newspaper readers have a slightly higher percentage of professional and managerial workers in their audiences compared to the broader Net.

The really big figure comes in the form of household income. Roughly 12 percent of online newspaper readers said their incomes were in the $150,000 or higher range. Only about nine percent of the general Internet audience has that level of income or better.