The Newspaper Association of America is reporting increased newspaper Web site readership:

More than 59.6 million people visited newspaper Web sites in July 2007, a nine percent increase over the same period a year ago and the second largest monthly audience since NAA began tracking these numbers in 2004 (May 2007 ranks first with nearly 60.3 million visitors). The figure is part of the fall 2007 Newspaper Audience Database (NAdbase) report released today by the Newspaper Association of America.

NAA has also released "Newspaper Footprint: Total Audience in Print and Online," an analysis of Scarborough Research newspaper audience data. The analysis found that nearly eight in 10 adults (77 percent) read a newspaper in print or online each week. Other highlights include:

• Newspapers and newspaper Web sites (the newspaper footprint) reach 77% of adults in a given week.
• The newspaper footprint reaches 65% of young adults (18-24) in a given week.
• In a given week, the newspaper footprint reaches 66% of adults who have been in their home less than a year.
• The newspaper footprint reaches 78% of food shoppers with long receipts ($150+) in a given week.
• The newspaper footprint reaches 81% of consumers planning to spend $35,000+ on a new vehicle in the next 12 months.
• The newspaper footprint reaches 82% of adults who have made any Internet purchase in the last 12 months.

The full report is available at http://www.naa.org/docs/TrendsandNumbers/NAANewspaperFootprint.pdf.

The push to herald total audience is coming not a moment too soon since paid circulation continues on a downward slide. According to industry sources speaking to E&P, daily circulation for reporting papers in the six-month FAS-FAX period ending September is down about 2.5% while Sunday is expected to fall 3.5%. Those types of declines -- in the 2% and 3% range -- have been occurring as far back as the March 2005 period.