WebProNews

The Newspaper Association of America (NAA) published numbers today that reveal more people are increasingly going online to get their news.

The NAA says Newspaper Web sites brought in close to 66.4 million unique visitors on average (40.2% of all Internet users) in the second quarter of 2008. This is a 12.2 percent increase over the same period a year ago.

Newspaper Web site visitors generated an average of over three billion page views per month throughout the quarter, compared with nearly 2.7 million during the same time last year.

"The Internet has become the news destination of choice for many sophisticated consumers and newspaper companies continue to meet their evolving demands," said NAA President and CEO John F. Sturm. "The latest audience figures provide further evidence that newspapers' digital properties deliver highly-accurate and hyper-local content that consumers can't find anywhere else."

As newspapers continue to increase their online audiences, the NAA has launched a new online destination for advertisers. The site is in flash format and promotes the advantages newspaper's multi-platform offerings give advertisers. It features comprehensive details on reader engagement, ad ideas, audience data and production specifications.

"With newspaper sales staffs placing an unprecedented emphasis on digital advertising, newspapermedia.com offers the information they need to demonstrate the effectiveness of the medium's multi-platform offerings," said Randy Bennett, NAA's senior vice president of Business Development.