Until now, the UK Audit Bureau of Circulations has developed data that is standardized for all the papers it measures. Web traffic is still a very vague measurement system and there exists no standardized procedure.

With the Internet, newspapers must also deal with new issues about web traffic measures and their significance.

“How are we measuring the numbers logging on to a particular newspaper website - in terms of unique users, or of the audience size or reach? Similarly, what do we mean when we talk about the frequency with which one person goes to one site - number of different places (pages) visited, or frequency of use?” wrote The Independent in the UK.

Peter Cole, professor at the University of Sheffield, argues that the crowd of news-craving individuals is on the rise, even for newspapers, and that it is simply becoming harder to measure where these readers are going.

Both Independent titles registered increasing readerships, coupled with declining sales. With decreasing sales, the Independent managed to gain 52,000 readers and the Independent on Sunday 34,000 readers in 2006.

Newspapers can rest assured that their audience still exists – and is growing. The challenge now is to monetize the new ways in which readers are consuming news.

Source: The Independent through Ifra Executive News service