WebProNews

The market share of U.S. visits to the News and Media category increased 22 percent for the week ending February 23, 2008, compared to the same week in 2007, according to Hitwise.

 New York Times - #1 Print News Website

The News and Media category reached its highest peak in the last 36-month period. The Print category, which is made up of online magazines and newspaper Web sites, increased 23 percent for the week ending February 23, 2008, compared to the same week during the previous year.

The most visited Web site in the Print category last week was The New York Times, which received five percent of the market share of visits.

Other top Print Web sites included People.com which received three percent of the U.S. visits followed by The Washington Post with two percent of visits. TV Guide.com attracted close to two percent (1.97%) of U.S. visits followed by USA Today with 1.6 percent of visits.

New York Times had the largest year-over-year traffic growth among the top five Web sites in the Print category with a 50 percent increase in U.S. visits. The Web site of New York magazine had a 336 percent increase in market share over the previous week after posting the online version of the "Lohan as Monroe" photo spread.

"The photos of Lindsay Lohan portraying Marilyn Monroe sparked considerable interest from online users last week," said Heather Dougherty, Research Director, Hitwise. "Although the battle for the presidential nominations is certainly top of mind for many, celebrity news provides a refuge for less-heated debates."

The search term "lunar eclipse" was tops among all News and Media Web sites while "Jennifer Lopez" was the top search term among News and Media Print Web sites. Barack Obama was in three of the top 10 searchers for both categories along with American Idol and Dancing with the Stars with two top 10 searches.