Online changes the profile of media owner audiences

The recent ABCe figures give the latest audience numbers for hits to newspaper websites. The Guardian website achieved 8.5 million unique users in the UK in June – the highest number for a newspaper site. Telegraph.co.uk recorded the biggest increase year-on-year, rising to 6.5 million unique users in the UK.

As impressive as these figures are, they only tell half the story. Not only are large numbers being reached through newspaper websites, they are also generating attractive audiences in their own right which show marked differences from the readership of printed titles.

Younger and more upmarket

Analysis of BMRB’s Internet Monitor survey has shown that the audience for online newspapers is more likely to be male, younger and more upmarket than the internet audience as a whole – not necessarily what you would tend to associate with printed newspaper audiences.

Online newspaper users have a higher average annual household income (£38,000) than the average internet user (£35,000). The internet also appears to be an integral part of their lives. Three-quarters (73%) of online newspaper users use the internet everyday compared with an average of 59% amongst all online users and 78% agree that they often refer to the internet before buying something, compared with 69% of all online users.

Opportunities for broadcasters and magazines

It isn’t only newspapers that can build additional audiences through other platforms - broadcasters and magazines are also keen to quantify their total audience figures and establish understanding of their overall audience profiles. Taking Channel 4 as an example; 32% of its TV audience is aged 15-34 and 27% is AB. These figures rise to 44% aged 15-34 and 33% AB when looking at its online audience. To leverage their total audiences to greatest effect, media owners need to develop a more in-depth understanding of their online audience, and how it fits with the off-line audience.

Trevor Vagg is a director at BMRB Media T: 020 8433 4068 E: trevor.vagg@bmrb.co.uk

The NMA’s PressClick initiative uses BMRB’s Internet Monitor to compare newspaper web audiences with their traditional profiles. Read more at www.nmauk.co.uk/pressclick/

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