WAToday - more interesting numbers ...

I took a look at the numbers for WAToday for last week (11/8-17/8) to see how the new FD site was performing.

Interestingly, a duplication check uncovers some curious figures.

How come 60% of WAToday's readers also visited SMH.com.au last week? And how come 54% visited The Age.com.au. AND ... how come 35% visited Brisbane Times?

*** All data sourced from Nielsen Market Intelligence, Market: Australia - News & Weather - Domestic > By Brand, Period: Weekly, 11/08/08 - 17/08/08

And how come less than 10% visited thewest.com.au? And just over 12% visited Perth Now? These are WA based publications with local news - why would Eastern Seaboard mastheads be more appealing?

And why would these WA eyeballs be visiting FD's other mastheads in such large volumes if WAToday was catering for this "highly engaged audience" and delivering them a "new perspective on news." (Jack Matthew's words, not mine)

I think there's a need for Fairfax to come out with numbers showing WA Today's WA audience - and also explain to market why there are such large audience duplication across their audience.

The digital Perth landgrab

Jack Matthews is out and about trumpeting WAToday's user numbers. The Oz is running a piece on it here --> http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24147236-26077,00.html

These numbers need a closer look I think.

1. They don't actually state how many of the users of WAToday are from WA
2. In terms of average daily UB's - WAToday is well behind the competition - PerthNow and TheWest.

Daily UB stats (August, source Nielsen Market Intelligence

PerthNow - 34,858
TheWest - 27,298
WAToday - 17,999

If we look at time spent per session

TheWest - 6m, 56s
WAToday - 4m, 4s
Perth Now - 3m, 52s

Matthews: "These results demonstrate that Western Australians were indeed ready for a new perspective on news and advertisers are reaping the benefits of our strong and highly engaged audience"

Problem is, thewest is still beating WAToday hands down for engagement. More repeat users, more time spent. And probably more WA eyeballs too ...