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Hitwise Intelligence - Heather Hopkins - UK

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BBC Favoured News Source But Wikipedia and Flickr Growing in Importance in the UK

January 05, 2006

It will come as no great surprise that UK visits to News and Media sites are event driven, with the most significant spikes in visits to News and Media sites in 2005 occurring alongside major news events. The news events for which the thirst for online news was greatest were the Indian Ocean Earthquake (or tsunami) and the 7th July terror bombings in London. It appears that the internet is a particularly valuable source of news when individuals want real-time updates and images.

BBC News and BBC.co.uk have consistently been the two most visited websites in the Hitwise News & Media category over the past 52 weeks and captured 18% and 16% respectively of UK visits to the category in December. BBC Weather was the third most visited News and Media website in December, further highlighting the BBC's dominance in the UK. Following the BBC are Guardian Unlimited, CNN.com, Times Online and the Telegraph.

Alternative Sources of News
UK internet users are increasingly turning to alternative sources for breaking news. For example, in December, while Wikipedia received a smaller share of visits than the BBC, it received twice as many visits as Guardian Unlimited. Following the London terror bombings on 7th July, Wikipedia was a key source of information with 5% of searches for 'london bombings' sending visits to Wikipedia in the four weeks ending 16 July 2005. In the four weeks ending 15th January 2005, 4% of searches for 'tsunami' sent visits to Flickr, a photo-sharing site where visitors could see images taken by witnesses of the disaster.

Google’s Dominance as a Source of Visits
Search engines are a key source of visits to News & Media sites accounting for 28% of visits to the category in December. The combined forces of Google UK and Google.com accounted for 73% of the visits from search, underscoring Google's dominance as a source of visits. Google UK Image Search and Google UK News also figure prominently as important sources of visits. Google UK News ranked sixth among News and Media sites based on share of visits and sent nearly half (46%) of its visits to other News and Media sites in December. Yahoo! UK and Ireland News also ranked among the top 10 News & Media sites in December. However the site is more of a destination for news searches, rather than a referrer of visits to other news sites. In December, Yahoo! UK & Ireland News sent only 9% of its visits to other News and Media sites.

Visitors to News & Media Sites are Older than Average for the Internet
News & Media sites attracted 21% more visitors aged 55+ than average for the internet in December. BBC Radio 4, the Telegraph and the FT.com are among the News & Media sites that attract the largest percentage of visits from the age group 55+, with more than a third of visits to each of these sites coming from this age group in December. Conversely, the News & Media sites that attract the largest share of visits from the 18-25 age category were Slashdot, NME, FHM Shoutwire and Reuters.

Top 10 News & Media Websites, Based on Market Share of UK Visits in December
Hitwise News & Media Sites - December.png