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India's online news readership jumps 34% in past year: comScore

The Times of India leads online news ranking, while also generating significant traffic from abroad

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India's online news readership jumps 34% in past year: comScore

The Times of India leads online news ranking, while also generating significant traffic from abroad

BestMediaInfo Bureau | Delhi | October 3, 2013

publive-imagecomScore Inc., a leader in measuring the digital world, has released a report highlighting online news readership in India based on data from its comScore Media Metrix service. The report shows that there has been significant growth in daily readership of news and information content in the past year, with an increase of 34 per cent to 9.4 million average daily visitors to the category.

comScore News/Information Properties in India

August 2012-2013

Total India – Home and Work Computers

Source: comScore Media Metrix
  August 2012 August 2013 % Change
Total Unique Visitors (000)  40,044  45,902 15%
Total Visits (000)  259,686  364,592 40%
Average Daily Visitors (000)  7,042  9,402 34%
Average Minutes per Visitor  31.6  41.6 31%
Total Unique Visitors (000)  40,044  45,902 15%

TOI leads online news ranking: The Times of India continues to be the clear leader in the news category, maintaining its No. 1 position since last year with 12.7 million unique visitors in August. India.com sites showed 25 per cent growth breaking into the top 10 for the first time with more than 7.1 million unique visitors. In addition to those two properties, 16 of the top 20 news properties are currently local news publishers.

comScore Top 20 News/Information Properties in India

August 2013

Total India – Home and Work Computers

Source: comScore Media Metrix
Rank Property Unique Visitors (000)   Rank Property Unique Visitors (000)
1 The Times of India 12,715   11 The Hindu Group 4,201
2 Yahoo!-ABC News Network 10,721   12 IBN Live 4,175
3 HT Media Ltd 8,219   13 The Indian Express Group 3,492
4 India Today Group 7,676   14 Bhaskar.com 2,537
5 India.com Sites 7,188   15 CNN Network 2,171
6 About 7,044   16 BBC 2,113
7 Jagran Sites 6,312   17 Sify News And Information 2,034
8 NDTV 6,258   18 HPMG News 1,965
9 OneIndia.com Sites 6,182   19 Navbharat Times 1,862
10 The Economic Times 4,415   20 FirstPost.com 1,832

Data also suggest reader engagement for the news category has spiked within the past year, with users spending on average 31 per cent more time on news sites at 41.6 minutes per visitor. DivyaBhaskar.co.in and Bhaskar.com demonstrated especially strong engagement at 100.3 minutes and 62.1 minutes, respectively. Other niche news sites with more modestly-sized audiences – including Jagbani.com, PunjabKesari.in, and Navbharat Times – also generated high engagement with a higher number of page views per visitor than the category average of 48.

Significant audiences from abroad: Continuing a past trend, many of the top Indian news sites saw a significant amount of traffic from abroad. FirstPost.com generated the highest share of its audience from abroad at 51.3 per cent, followed by Manorama sites at 45 per cent. The Times of India, as the most prominent news brand, also successfully extended its audience into other markets with 37.8 per cent of its audience coming from abroad. NDTV, India.com sites, and The Indian Express Group also have more than 30 per cent of their respective audiences coming from outside of India.

Share of Audience from Abroad Among Top News/Information Properties in India*

August 2013 vs. August 2012

Total India – Home and Work Computers

Source: comScore Media Metrix
Property Unique Visitors (000)  from Outside India Unique Visitors (000)  from India % of Audience From Abroad
FirstPost.com 1,932 1,832 51%
Manorama Sites 902 1,089 45%
The Times of India 7,736 12,715 38%
NDTV 3,550 6,258 36%
India.com Sites 3,584 7,188 33%
The Indian Express Group 1,606 3,492 32%
The Hindu Group 1,741 4,201 29%

(Based on News/Information properties with at least 1 million visitors)

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