In a follow up to Tuesday’s announcement that the Audit Bureau of Circulations Electronic (ABCe) will provide user profiles alongside stats on page impressions and unique users, Guy Lipscombe, managing director of Survey Interactive – the firm behind the on-site surveys being used for the research – explained how the ‘enhanced ABCe certificates’ would work at yesterday’s Regional Media Research Forum (RMRF) event:

Lipscombe was joined by Sally O’Donnell, strategic marketing manager for Trinity Mirror Regionals (TMR), who let us in on some key findings from Survey Interactive’s audience research with the group, which involved on-site questionnaires completed by 53,313 interviewees across TM’s 110 regional and national websites:

• TM’s online portfolio in Feb 08 was reaching 3.8 million adults a month according to the surveys – a different figure from the 5.5 million unique users calculated for the sites at the same time
• More than a third of internet users from an area covered by a TM regional title accessed the paper’s website on a regular basis
• A third of TMR website users regularly use more than one TMR website
• The group’s regional sites had a higher proportion of ABC1 (the National Readership Survey classification for middle class) users
• TM regional sites were given an average rating by interviewees of 8/10
• The regional sites attracted a young audience, but not as young as expected, said O’Donnell: majority of users were in the 35-54 age bracket

According to O’Donnell, further research will be conducted soon, as the group’s digital audience continues to grow. Sales staff training on how best to use the figures collected by the research will also be implemented – with particular attention paid to the difference between stats for ‘adults’ and ‘unique users’ to the sites and how behaviour differs amongst print and online consumers.

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Some significant differences between the figures for unique users visiting UK newspaper sites released by Nielsen Online today and those announced by the Audit Bureau of Circulations Electronic (ABCe) last week.

While both rank the Guardian as the most popular in the UK, Nielsen’s figures suggest the site attracted 3 million unique users in the UK in April compared to 7,762,826 recorded by the ABCe.

The Telegraph attracted 2.7 million UK uniques in April, according to Nielsen – around 3.5 million less than the figure reported by the ABCe.

By the Nielsen figures the Sun attracted 1.9 million UK unique users, the Times 1.8 million and the Daily Mail 1.7 million over the same period.

Nielsen calculates its traffic figures using a panel-based method called NetView, which the company describes as ‘around 45,000 UK internet users who have opted in to download a meter which records all their PC, online and application usage on a continual and ongoing basis.’

In contrast, websites register themselves with the ABCe, which then audits data on web traffic recorded by the sites.

Very different methods – very different results.

Interestingly Nielsen also provides data on the ‘engagement’ of UK unique users with a site, differentiating between ‘heavy’ (>15 minutes), ‘medium’(>5 – >=15 minutes) and ‘light’(<=5 minutes) users.

The results of this analysis suggest the most popular online newspapers – the Guardian and Telegraph – have the highest percentage of light visitors (with 83%and 81% respectively).

The results for engagement in full:

Sun: 14% heavy, 16% medium, 70% light
Times: 13% heavy, 17% medium, 70% light
Daily Mail: 12% heavy, 14% medium,75% light
Telegraph: 7% heavy, 12% medium, 81% light
Guardian: 6% heavy, 11% medium, 83% light

The figures suggest that the Times is the only title to have gained in ‘heavy’ users since January 2008, while the Telegraph has recorded the biggest increase in ‘light’ users over the same period.

As Stephen Brooks, UK managing director for Nielsen Online, pointed out in the release: “Analysing the Telegraph’s audience by heavy, medium and light visitors reveals their dramatic growth in popularity is concentrated around light users, which could be due to the site’s improved visibility in search results,”

“This encapsulates the ‘reach vs engagement’ conundrum that newspaper sites face – is the best path to financial success attracting the most visitors or having a smaller core of more engaged users?”

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Nearly 15 million people – 44 per cent of UK internet users – visited newspaper sites during March, according to ComScore web metrics.

The Guardian says that ComScore figures suggest that Sun Online was the most visited UK newspaper site by residents of this country, recording 4.3 million unique users, with Guardian.co.uk second with at 3.6 million.

Telegraph.co.uk had 2.8 million users and Times Online 2.6 million.

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China has moved past the US as the country with the most internet users, it was reported by Chinese state media.

According to Reuters, Xinhua news agency quoted the China Internet Network Information Centre, claiming that the number of internet users in the country had risen to 221 million by the end of February – surpassing the number of internet users in the US for the first time.

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The website of The Independent newspaper – one not know for its popularity, sophistication or embracing of the internet – has doubled its share of the UK online market over the last year, according to Hitwise.

“The market share of the UK Independent, which has traditionally lagged behind most of its rivals online, has more doubled over the last twelve months,” wrote Robin Goad, research director, Hitwise UK.

“It was the seventh most visited website in our News and Media (Print section) in March putting it behind the Daily Mail, Times, Sun, Telegraph, Guardian and FT, but ahead of the Mirror and Express”

Hitwise measures the relative success of a website by the share of UK-based internet users it attracts over a given period.

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As Burmese citizens joined their nation’s monks in pro-democracy demonstrations, the international media became reliant on bloggers and eyewitnesses posting images, videos and accounts to the web.

Two weeks later, this flow of online information has been stemmed by a government crackdown, which, according to The Guardian, has now made all websites with the .mm suffix unavailable and reduced the number of active blogs from the region to almost zero.

Increasing control over the internet is thought to have begun last week with a block on access from within Burma to some political blogs.

A complete block of Google-owned service Blogger.com followed according to the same Guardian report, and, on Friday, internet access stopped entirely.

Through its English-language TV channel MRTV-3, the military Junta has broadcast messages branding international news providers as liars and ‘destructionists’.

The BBC has been asking for first-hand clips and statements by way of specialised comment boxes at the end of articles on the events:

Are you in the area? Are you affected by the events in Burma? Send us your comments using the form below.

You can send your pictures and moving footage to yourpics@bbc.co.uk or text them to + 44 (0) 7725 100 100

Click here for terms and conditions on sending photos and video

When taking photos or filming please do not endanger yourself or others, take unnecessary risks or infringe any laws.

Audio and video, pictures and text sent to the BBC from people in Burma allowed for frequent, on-the-ground updates.

However, a BBC report on Friday said:

Journalists at the BBC News website say no images are now being sent from Burma and the previously fast flow of e-mail comments sent from inside the country has slowed to a trickle.

Not all sites have lost communication: The Irrawaddy news website, produced by exiled Burmese journalists, carries photos of the protests from Friday and text updates, including alerts from today.

Some blogs published by third parties, such as London-based blogger Ko Htike and the Burmese Bloggers without Borders site, which was started in response to the demonstrations, are still active.

Within Burma, internet users have been gaining access to news sites through foreign-hosted proxy sites, such as your-freedom.net and glite.sayni.net, but the latest restrictions to internet access will make even these tactics impossible.

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