Is this the time to advertise on media sites?

As American's head deeper into this election year more and more consumers are logging on to news and media websites to stay up to date with primaries and election issues. According to a recent Hitwise report, traffic to US news and media sites increased by nearly one quarter during the third week of February.

by Kristina Knight

For the week ending February 23, the share of US visits to news/media websites increase by 22% year over year. The "print" category alone saw an increase of 23% year over year according to the report.

The New York Times (www.nytimes.com) holds a strong 5% share, the largest of a print publication. The Times also saw the greatest traffic increase year over year (50%) compared to the other top five most visited sites. Following the Times are People magazine (3% share), The Washington Post (2.3% share) and TV Guide (1.9% share). USA Today round out the top five most trafficked sites with a 1.6% share.

However, the largest growth overall was from New York Magazine which saw a 330% increase in market share for the week ending February 23.

The election isn't the only draw to media websites of course. Hollywood starlets continue to drive traffic to media websites as do newsworthy events like the lunar eclipse, which happened the week of February 23. The election, though, will continue to drive traffic to media websites which makes news/media websites a good investment for advertisers in the coming months.