Meet the new boss. Same as the old boss. With apologies to Pete
Townshend, the Who lyrics are an apt anaology for companies looking
for strong media vehicles on the Web. These days, the media with
the most reach online bare a striking resemblance to the most
powerful (and traditional) media products; established brands, like
The New York Times, ABC News and Tribune Co., that have been around
well before the Web was even a twinkle in the eye of Defense
Department nerds.
Still, with an increasingly fragmented media universe
established outlets now play a more important role than ever. The
reliance on the big boys reminds us of the ongoing debate about the
imminent demise of network television. To wit, the dinosaurs were
around a few million years before they finally punched out, so any
significant changes among the top media vehicles in print/radio/web
will likely be a slow and drawn out process.
As part of our special focus on media relations, PR NEWS asked
Medialink to crunch the numbers on the biggest media vehicles in
print, radio and the Web. For radio, we include the top 10 formats,
on a national basis, for both drive time (6 a.m.-10 a.m.) and rush
hour (3 p.m.- 7 p.m.). (Cable news shows are not included since the
numbers are in constant flux.) The numbers for the newspapers and
Web sites are current while the stats from radio are from summer of
2003.
|
Top 10 Web sites: UNIQUE
AUDIENCE (000) |
||
| 1. | CNN | 19,970 |
| 2. | MSNBC | 19,629 |
| 3. | Yahoo! News | 18,134 |
| 4. | AOL News | 12,571 |
| 5. | Gannett Newspapers and Newspaper Division |
9,685 |
| 6. | NYTimes.com | 9,549 |
| 7. | Knight Ridder Digital | 8,171 |
| 8. | Internet Broadcasting Systems Inc. |
8,124 |
| 9. | Tribune Newspapers | 7,755 |
| 10. | ABCNEWS Digital | 7,188 |
|
Top 10 Newspapers:
Circulation |
||
|
1.
|
USA Today |
2,250,474
|
|
2.
|
Wall Street Journal |
1,890,041
|
|
3.
|
New York Times |
1,130,740
|
|
4.
|
Los Angeles Times |
945,053
|
|
5.
|
Washington Post |
796,367
|
|
6.
|
New York Daily News |
737,030
|
|
7.
|
Chicago Tribune |
693,659
|
|
8.
|
New York Post |
620,080
|
|
9.
|
Newsday |
579,351
|
|
10.
|
Houston Chronicle |
548,508
|
Source for radio charts: Arbitron Source for newspaper and Web
charts: Medialink
|
Top 10 Radio News
Formats: Drive Time 6 a.m.- 10 a.m. |
||
|
1.
|
News/talk/information |
19.4
|
|
2.
|
Adult comtemporary |
12.8
|
|
3.
|
Rock |
10.1
|
|
4.
|
Urban |
9.3
|
|
5.
|
Spanish |
9
|
|
6.
|
Country |
8.6
|
|
7.
|
Oldies |
7.1
|
|
8.
|
Alternatives |
5.4
|
|
9.
|
Religious |
2.9
|
|
10.
|
Smooth Jazz |
2.4
|
|
Top 10 Radio Formats: Rush
Hour 3 p.m. - 7.p.m. |
||
|
1.
|
News/Talk/Information |
17
|
|
2.
|
Adult contemporary |
13.9
|
|
3.
|
Urban |
10
|
|
4.
|
Country |
8.8
|
|
5.
|
Rock |
8.5
|
|
6.
|
Oldies |
7.9
|
|
7.
|
Spanish |
7.4
|
|
8.
|
Alternative |
5
|
|
9.
|
Smooth Jazz |
3.3
|
|
10.
|
Religious |
2.5
|
*AQH Average number of people listening to a
particular station for at least five minutes during a 15-minute
period (in hundreds).