12:04pm Saturday 28th November 2009
By Daily Echo reporter
OUR soaring website audience is expanding the Daily Echo Bournemouth’s reach by more than 70 per cent each month.
The new figures were released following the launch of Locally Connected, which aims to give advertisers a more accurate picture of the combined reach of newspapers and their websites.
According to research by the Newspaper Society, which launched the initiative, a monthly online campaign on bournemouthecho.co.uk in conjunction with a single advertisement in the paper will increase reach by 70.4 per cent a month.The UK average is 14 per cent.
In 2009 bournemouthecho.co.uk attracted a record-breaking audience, peaking in August when more than 229,000 unique visitors looked at 2.5 million pages.
The figures were boosted by the success of our in paper and online homes and cars sections.
Nearly 4,000 people search for a car online each month – Wheels appears in the Daily Echo Bournemouth every Tuesday and Friday.
And more than 3,000 people search for a home online each month – Homes appears in the Daily Echo Bournemouth on Wednesday.
Newspaper Society president David Fordham said: “More than 80 per cent of adults read a local newspaper in print and ironically, at a time when our revenues have been under such challenge, local media audiences have been growing across multimedia platforms.
“The local paper is still the first place they turn to – in print and online.”
He added that people spend more than half of their time within a five-mile radius of home and are increasingly interested in local news.
The Newspaper Society’s communications director Lynne Anderson said: “Local media is reaching bigger audiences than ever, delivering trusted local news and information to 40 million print readers a week and 37 million web users a month.”
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