Swiss online news services with stable usage
Overall, Swiss online news sites increased their unique audience by nearly 9 percent from April to July 2009. The average visit frequency remained stable, while the average session duration in this category showed a slight upward trend, peaking at 45 minutes in June 2009.
On average, Swiss internet users visited online news sites nine times a month, with 10 visits in June. The amount of time spent surfing the various sites varied in the months under comparison. While an average of around 38 minutes was spent visiting online news sites in April 2009, the duration of use in June 2009 peaked at 45 minutes in the period under review. This corresponds to a significant increase of 15.6%. In July, however, this figure fell again.
Overall, the proportion of male users predominates on all portals in the top 5. At 35 percent, 20 Minuten has the highest proportion of 18- to 34-year-old Internet users. The figure for the other portals in the top 5 is below 30 percent, with this age group being the smallest at Bluewin news with 14 percent. NZZ Online has the most users in the income group over CHF 113,901 with 28 percent, while 20 Minuten has almost half as many with 15 percent. Overall, 20 Minuten and Blick Online have the lowest proportion of visitors over the age of 50. NZZ Online, Tagesanzeiger.ch and Bluewin news have significantly more internet users in this age category compared to the respective portal-related age distribution.
The analysis of lost and new users compared to the previous month provides further revealing insights. None of the portals (top 5) lost unique audience compared to the previous month, or to put it another way: The proportion of lost users is made up for by the new users gained.
