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News and media websites took an increasing share of UK internet visits during the last year.

Data from Hitwise, which measures the proportion of visits rather than page views or unique users, reveals that the popularity of news and media sites grew in the 12 months to January, with the sector showing a 28 per cent growth in market share of UK internet visits.

News and media, however, remains a relatively small share of total UK internet use. In January 2006, visits to news and media websites accounted for only 3.4 per cent of all UK online visits.

In January 2007, the same category had grown to a 4.31 per cent share of total visits.

"Traditional print media brands are learning the ways of the web and growth in visits to the category reflects a new lease of life for the sector," said Heather Hopkins, VP of research for Hitwise UK.

"Yesterday's positive earnings announcement from the Financial Times, citing online advertising sales up 30 per cent, supports the resurgence that offline media brands are enjoying online.

"Print media websites enjoyed a strong year, with visits up 28 per cent year-on-year in January, making it one of the fastest-growing categories. However, challenging times lie ahead as more and more consumers turn to nimble social media websites for news and analysis."

Digg.com lead the growth for the news and media sector. It was the fastest growing top 100 news and media website year-on-year as its market share of UK internet visits grew more than five-fold.

Last month Digg was the highest ranked IT media website by Hitwise and overall ranked 32nd news and media website. However, Hitwise claimed its growth was mostly fuelled by games and video sharing, rather than news.

The BBC remained the top media and news site with more than 35 per cent of the sector's visits directed there.

UK Top 100 news and media websites (by visits) with the largest growth in market share from January 2007 to January 2006 - according to Hitwise

Rank	Name	Domain	Market Share Growth
1	Digg.com	www.digg.com	456%
2	CNET	www.cnet.com	255%
3	Weather.com	www.weather.com	198%
4	Yahoo! UK & Ireland Weather	uk.weather.yahoo.com	160%
5	Yahoo! UK & Ireland News	uk.news.yahoo.com	105%
6	Metro.co.uk	www.metro.co.uk	94%
7	Blackwell Synergy	www.blackwell-synergy.com	88%
8	UK Wind Map	www.xcweather.co.uk	72%
9	Daily Mail	www.dailymail.co.uk	68%
10	Computer Active	www.computeractive.co.uk	61%

Tags (click tag to find related articles; click icon for feed):
daily mail | united kingdom | internet use | news site | media sites | the financial times | media websites | media website | internet visits | online advertising sales | offline media brands | print media brands | nimble social media websites | heather hopkins |

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