Although U.S. print circulation has been suffering of late, online readership is making up 28% of the losses in readership, suggests new study from Scarborough Research.

The firm studied 88 newspapers in the top 50 markets from August 2004 to March 2007.

Key findings include:

-online readership grew 14% in the study period

-70% of all newspaper web site visitors are “integrated” users, meaning that they read both the print and online version

-online newspapers are reaching more of the 18-34 demographic

-the number of exclusive online readers, those who don’t read the print version, increased by 21%

According to Editor & Publisher, the study determined three factors for success at papers that experienced growth in their integrated audience: relentless promotion, functionalities like photo sharing, and a focus on local content.  

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Source: Editor & Publisher

Update:

Contradicting this research is a recently released study from Outsell Research which concludes newspaper websites are losing users. The data is drawn from comScore and covers the period from May-July 2006 compared to May-July 2007.

Source: Editor & Publisher through IFRA Executive News Service