Fast-Growing U.K. Online Newspaper Market Attracting Even Larger Audiences From Beyond the Pond

The Sun Online Ranks as the Most Popular U.K. Newspaper Site

- 3/4 of Visitors to Mail Online Come From Outside the U.K.

comScore, Inc. (Nasdaq: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today released the results of a study examining domestic and worldwide visitation to leading U.K. newspaper sites, based on data from the comScore World Metrix audience measurement service. In total, 15.9 million people in the U.K. visited a newspaper Web site in March, representing a 43-percent reach of the country's online population.

(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20080115/COMSCORELOGO)

U.K. Newspapers Enjoy Healthy Domestic Growth Online

The Sun Online was the most popular online newspaper in the U.K. in March, growing 8 percent versus year ago to 4.6 million visitors. Guardian.co.uk ranked second with 4.3 million visitors, followed by Telegraph.co.uk (3.9 million visitors), the Mail Online (3.5 million visitors) and the Times Online (3 million visitors). The majority of the top ten newspaper sites achieved double-digit growth versus year ago, including Metro.co.uk, which grew 75 percent to rank as the fastest-growing.

Total Online Visitors to a Selection of Leading U.K. Newspaper Titles*
    Total U.K., Age 15+ - Home & Work Locations**
    Mar-2009 vs. Mar-2008
    Source: comScore World Metrix
               Property                Mar-2008    Mar-2009    % Change
    Total U.K. Internet Audience        33,761      36,781           9%
    Newspapers                          14,823      15,937           8%
    The Sun Online***                    4,268       4,602           8%
    GUARDIAN.CO.UK                       3,619       4,263          18%
    TELEGRAPH.CO.UK                      2,754       3,928          43%
    Mail Online                          2,466       3,516          43%
    Times Online                         2,600       2,955          14%
    INDEPENDENT.CO.UK                    1,017       1,623          60%
    Mirror Online                        1,101       1,591          45%
    METRO.CO.UK                            488         852          75%
    FT.com                                 817         691         -15%

    *Based on a selection of individual online newspaper titles; excludes
     group newspaper properties.
    **Excludes traffic from public computers such as Internet cafes or
     access from mobile phones or PDAs.
    ***Includes traffic to News of the World sites.

U.K. Newspapers Draw International Audiences

While online U.K. newspapers draw substantial domestic audiences, most attract even larger international audiences. Specifically, the Mail Online derived 73 percent of its worldwide audience from outside of the U.K., followed by FT.com (67 percent), and Metro.co.uk (61 percent). Even Thisislondon.co.uk, the Web site of London-focused newspaper the Evening Standard, derived 48 percent of its total traffic from outside of the country.

"Traditional U.K. newspaper brands have proven to be very popular online, both here in the U.K. and around the world," said Mike Read, SVP and Managing Director, comScore Europe. "Whether or not these titles choose to switch to subscription-based models, at the possible expense of audience attrition, remains to be seen. However, we can be certain that the online medium has enabled U.K. newspapers to attract substantial incremental readership from other countries - audiences that were not nearly as accessible in the days of print-only publications."

Total Worldwide Visitors to a Selection of Leading U.K. Newspaper Titles*
    Total Worldwide, Age 15+ - Home & Work Locations**
    Mar-2009
    Source: comScore World Metrix
                                      Total           Total         % of Total
                                       U.K.     Worldwide Unique     Audience
                                      Unique         Visitors          from
                                     Visitors          (000)          Outside
              Property                (000)                          the U.K.
    Mail Online                        3,516            12,814            73%
    The Sun Online***                  4,602            11,518            60%
    TELEGRAPH.CO.UK                    3,928            10,436            62%
    GUARDIAN.CO.UK                     4,263             9,901            57%
    Times Online                       2,955             7,307            60%
    INDEPENDENT.CO.UK                  1,623             3,558            54%
    Mirror Online                      1,591             3,287            52%
    METRO.CO.UK                          852             2,165            61%
    FT.COM                               691             2,094            67%
    THISISLONDON.CO.UK                   596             1,145            48%

    *Based on a selection of individual online newspaper titles; excludes
     group newspaper properties.
    **Excludes traffic from public computers such as Internet cafes or
      access from mobile phones or PDAs.
    ***Includes traffic to News of the World sites.

Other notable findings from the report include:
    -  Of the 15.9 million U.K. Internet users who visited a
       newspaper site in March, 72 percent were from the ABC1 social grade and
       63 percent were under the age of 45.
    -  35 percent of the total 2.1 million visitors to FT.com came from
       the U.S. in March, compared with the 33 percent who accessed the site
       from within the U.K.
    -  Of the 48 million mobile phone subscribers in the U.K. in
       February, 11.9 million accessed news and information via browser or
       download.

About comScore

comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR) is a global leader in measuring the digital world. For more information, please visit http://www.comscore.com/boilerplate

Jamie Gavin of comScore, Inc., +44-(0)-207-099-1775, worldpress@comscore.com;
Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20080115/COMSCORELOGO

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