Online Media Users More Likely To Use The Same Media Brand Offline.

The Online Publishers Association released new data that indicates that users of branded media Web sites are more likely to read, watch or listen to those same media brands offline.

In a recent OPA survey among 4,980 Internet users aged 14+, 56% of online media users indicated that they are more likely to read, watch or listen to the offline component of the brand. Furthermore, those users with high affinity toward a particular media Web site are even more likely to watch the companion network or read the companion publication (66%), versus only 23% of low affinity users. The research also found that users of Special Interest (70%) and Sports (60%) sites are particularly likely to translate into offline readers/viewers/listeners of the corresponding brand.

“There is a strong inclination among online media consumers to also engage with the offline property,” said Michael Zimbalist, executive director of the Online Publishers Association. “In addition, the online and offline components of a media brand are synergistic in that they reach their audiences during different times of the day. This suggests that advertisers who communicate through offline media brands can achieve greater impact by adding an online component from the corresponding Web site(s) into their media plan.”

Online media sites introduce valuable new consumers to the overall media brand and are a highly effective and efficient channel for driving print subscriptions. For example:

— ESPN.com will be the #1 source of direct to publisher new business for ESPN the Magazine this year.
— September YTD, NYTimes.com has generated more than 58,000 credit card subscriptions to The New York Times.
— USATODAY.com is the #2 source of new subscriptions for USA TODAY in 2002.
— Approximately 10% of all new subscriptions to The Washington Post are driven by washingtonpost.com. The site is the fastest growing source of new subscriptions to The Washington Post, with the number of print subscriptions being driven by the site doubling over last year.
— September YTD, Boston.com has generated more than 8,800 new subscriptions to The Boston Globe.
— Seven to eight percent of total annual subscriptions to CondeNast Publications are sold through CondeNet; 90+% of those are first-time buyers.
— Forbes.com is one of the top 5 subscription sources for Forbes magazine.
Online media sites also increase sampling of companion TV networks. According to a recent MSNBC.com survey conducted by MarketFacts, 31% of MSNBC.com users said that they are more likely to watch MSNBC cable news, vs. 19% who said they are less likely; 49% indicated that they were neither more nor less likely to watch the network as a result of visiting the Web site.

Media sites are also effective at driving viewers to programming. In April 2001, ESPN surveyed 4,961 visitors to ESPN.com the weekend of the NFL Draft. More than half (52%) of the respondents indicated that the information on ESPN.com made them more likely to tune in to the Draft on ESPN/ESPN2.