Editor & Publisher has released its ranking of average time spent per person for the US’ top 30 newspaper sites. NYTimes.com is in the lead, with almost 36 minutes per visitor.

The figure is still high, but much lower than for January 2007, when average time spent per person was 44 minutes.

As a matter of fact, the average time spent at US’ 5 most popular newspaper sites, those of the NYT, USA Today, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal and Los Angeles Times, decreased from year-on-year, in what could seem to be a trend for newspaper website usage (except for washingtonpost.com, for which average time spent remained flat).

Significantly, the average time spent on WSJ.com was slightly less than eight minutes. Time spent on Newsday.com, which enjoyed one of the biggest user increases over the past year, was a mere three minutes.

Among the winners in average time spent on site, Azcentral.com more than doubled its figures, up to 16 minutes, and the Minnesota Star Tribune succeeded in sustaining last year’s high average, at 29 minutes per person.

Below are the results as published by E&P. All numbers are from Nielsen Online:

Brand or Channel -- 2008 Time per Person (hh:mm:ss) -- 2007 Time per Person (hh:mm:ss)

NYTimes.com -- 0:35:47 -- 0:44:05
USATODAY.com -- 0:13:06 -- 0:21:42
washingtonpost.com -- 0:17:30 -- 0:17:32
Wall Street Journal Online -- 0:07:50 -- 0:21:04
LA Times -- 0:07:56 -- 0:12:13

Boston.com -- 0:11:11 -- 0:20:24
SFGate.com/San Francisco Chronicle -- 0:11:50 -- 0:10:13
New York Post -- 0:14:22 -- 0:09:55
Newsday -- 0:03:34 -- 0:07:08
Chicago Tribune -- 0:12:24 -- 0:10:47

Daily News Online Edition -- 0:09:22 -- 0:07:18
Chicago Sun-Times -- 0:07:39 -- 0:08:08
Village Voice -- 0:04:33 -- 0:02:47
Atlanta Journal-Constitution -- 0:22:37 -- 0:27:57
The Politico -- 0:09:50 -- 0:02:35*

Seattle Post-Intelligencer -- 0:09:48 -- 0:07:16
The Houston Chronicle -- 0:17:23 -- 0:22:18
DallasNews.com -- The Dallas Morning News -- 0:03:21 -- 0:05:07
Azcentral.com -- 0:16:41 -- 0:06:58
Baltimore Sun -- 0:05:53 -- 0:11:01

The Seattle Times -- 0:10:37 -- 0:08:05
International Herald Tribune -- 0:02:44 -- 0:01:49
NJ.com -- 0:07:38 -- 0:15:29
Detroit Free Press -- 0:12:18 -- 0:15:45
The San Diego Union-Tribune -- 0:07:35 -- 0:06:01

Star Tribune -- 0:29:08 -- 0:29:58
The Washington Times -- 0:03:22 -- 0:04:37
tampabay.com (St. Petersburg Times) -- 0:06:36 -- 0:06:57
Philly.com -- 0:07:13 -- 0:25:53
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette -- 0:13:08 -- 0:16:48

*Estimates are calculated on small sample sizes and are subject to increased statistical variability as a result.

Source: Editor & Publisher