Internet Users Flood Entertainment News Sites

Cover of special Time 64-page issue dedicated to the late Michael Jackson. (AP Photo/Time Inc.)July 1, 2009: More than 25% of all Internet users in the U.S. - some 55 million Americans - visited an entertainment news site in May, a 7% increase versus the previous year, while the number of videos viewed online grew 53% in the past year, according to a new survey from marketing and digital measurement firm comScore, Reston, Va. The information is based on data from the comScore Media Metrix and comScore Video Metrix services.

These numbers are expected to build even more in June due to such entertainment-related news events as the deaths of Michael Jackson and Farrah Fawcett. "May was one of the heaviest months on record for entertainment news consumption, but it will almost certainly be surpassed in June with the shocking news of Michael Jackson’s death driving high volumes of traffic to these sites,” Jack Flanagan, comScore executive vice president, said in a statement.

In total, Internet users in the U.S. spent more than 893 million minutes – or approximately 15 million hours – on entertainment news sites, with 44% of the total time spent in the category occurring at work. Yahoo!’s celebrity gossip site, omg!, led the category with 20.6 million visitors, nearly doubling its audience in the past year. TMZ captured the No. 2 ranking with 9.9 million visitors (up 7% versus year ago), followed by People.com with 8.2 million visitors. Significant gains were also experienced by USmagazine.com (up 325% to 6.5 million visitors), Entertainment Weekly (up 64% to nearly 4 million visitors) and The Insider (up 215% to 2.5 million visitors). “While most entertainment news sites will see gains in June, TMZ is primed for an especially big month as the first outlet to report the news [about Michael Jackson], which generated thousands of inbound links to the site," said Flanagan. Back to Home Page