comScore Networks & NAA Online Research For The Newspaper Industry.

comScore Networks, Inc. and the Newspaper Association of America announced a partnership to provide the online newspaper industry with new insight into the buying and visiting behavior of online newspaper readers. The research conducted by comScore and NAA will help advance publishers’ understanding of the size and characteristics of online newspaper site audiences, including detailed information about the online and offline buying power of newspaper sites in local markets throughout the U.S.

Historically, local newspapers have bundled online advertising with print sales to both local and national advertisers. Still, many local advertisers have been eager to increase their use of the Web to reach consumers in specific geographic areas, but have lacked the local market consumer insight needed to target these efforts. comScore Media Metrix LocalScore™, an information service core to the comScore/NAA partnership, meets this need by accurately measuring the audience characteristics and offline spending power of visitors to any major site at the local market level.

Using LocalScore data, NAA will develop initiatives to raise awareness among advertisers of the value of online newspapers as a powerful tool to reach consumers at the local market level. Coupled with existing NAA programs, these new offline spending measurements will generate a more comprehensive view of online newspaper sites and their ability to attract valuable audiences for advertisers in numerous industries.

Through its proprietary and patent-pending technology, comScore continuously and confidentially captures the complete details of Internet surfing and actual buying activity across its Global Network of more than 1.5 million representative Internet users. The comScore database combines industry-endorsed random digit dial (RDD) sampling methodologies with massive population samples across key home, work, university and non-U.S. locations.

By combining comScore’s online behavioral metrics with consumer spending data in more than 400 categories, LocalScore is uniquely positioned to quantify the offline buying power of visitors to specific Web sites – including online news sources – in 78 local markets. For example, Minneapolis area visitors to StarTribune.com spent a total of $925 million dining out in 2002, while visitors to SunSentinel.com residing in the Miami-Fort Lauderdale area spent $373 million.

“Local advertisers, from restaurants and retailers to accountants and car dealerships, are demanding more relevant and convincing research to demonstrate the opportunity and ROI of online advertising in their own markets,” said David Shipps, vice president of comScore Local Market Solutions. “As the voice of the newspaper industry, NAA is uniquely positioned to educate advertisers on the advantages of online advertising at the local market level. comScore is pleased to provide research that will have an immediate impact on the newspapers industry’s growing investment in such initiatives.”

“To date, the local market advertising constituency for newspapers has primarily leveraged print media, even though in many markets, newspaper sites are among the most visited local Web sites,” said John Kimball, NAA’s senior vice president and chief marketing officer. “NAA is committed to sponsoring research that will impart confidence in the value of online newspapers as a vehicle to effectively reach consumers at the local market level. NAA’s partnership with comScore is an important outcome of that commitment.”