Marking an 11.9 percent increase over the same period last year, unique-visitor tallies for magazine websites grew faster than those for the Internet in general during the first quarter of 2008, the Magazine Publishers of America (MPA) announced on May 20. U.S. Internet usage as a whole grew only 3.7 percent in the first quarter.

Magazine websites also showed gains in the total number of sessions (site visits by unique or repeat users) per month during the first quarter. Magazine website users accounted for an average of 497.3 million total sessions per month in Q1 2008, compared to an average of 427.7 million total sessions for the same period last year.

According to MPA President and CEO Nina Link, "Magazine brands online are getting ‘stickier' with Web audiences, as the latest data show. Publishers are increasingly employing the latest digital innovations to broaden their reach and appeal to an audience that has a clear hunger for magazine online content and communities."

The MPA analyzed data gathered from 337 consumer magazine brands by Nielsen Online. Websites were included in the MPA report if they were online brands of printed or formerly printed magazines, represented and drew from a group of magazines and/or offered readily identifiable magazine content, such as Epicurious.com or CNNMoney.com.

, 2008-05-23