Study: Shoppers Often Use Newspaper Sites

Nearly half of online users who use the Internet for shopping are
online-newspaper readers, as are a considerable number of those making
purchases online, according to a Newspaper Association of America preliminary
study of online usage.

Scarborough Research of
New York surveyed online users, age 18 and up, via telephone in the top 50
U.S. markets for NAA. The final report is slated for publication this fall.

“As we continue our analysis of the survey results, what we’re seeing is that
online newspaper users are as attractive an audience for advertisers as those
who read print editions,” said NAA President and CEO John F. Sturm. “When the
final numbers are published, we’ll have a very thorough and comprehensive
picture of online users — and online newspaper users.”

The survey found that among the 51 percent of all online users who shop
online, 45 percent are online newspaper users. Slightly more than half (51
percent) of the 19 percent of Internet users looking online for information
about sales in local stores are online newspaper readers, as are 53 percent
of the 11 percent who participate in auctions, and 59 percent of the 10
percent who download coupons.

Of the 30 percent of online users who reported making a purchase on the
Internet, half (50 percent) have looked at an online newspaper. Within the 24
percent of those who purchased airline tickets online, fully two-thirds (66
percent) use an online newspaper. Fifty-nine percent of the 47 percent who
bought books online are online newspaper users, and nearly as many (58
percent) are included in the 40 percent who bought hardware or software
online.

NAA is a nonprofit organization representing more than 2,000 newspapers in
the U.S. and Canada.

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