U.S. magazine website traffic up 8.5% in second quarter

Traffic is up 8.5% for the most recent quarter on the 314 consumer magazine websites tracked by the Magazine Publishers of America (MPA). The total was an average 69.7 million unique monthly visitors over 64.2 million during the same period last year, according to the most recent figures from the MPA.

Magazine Web site users accounted for an average of 462.8 million "sessions" per month during the second quarter this year, an increase of 9.9 percent. Visitors spent an average of 2.05 billion minutes per month during the second quarter, up 21.5 percent from the same period last year...Second quarter monthly reach for magazine sites grew 42.2 percent of the total U.S. Internet population, the MPA said, posting a 4.3 percent gain over the same period in 2007.

The results have to be seen with some caution, since other media websites have done equally well or better.

Compare the 317 magazine websites with the results of CBS Corporation, which had web traffic of 48.2 million unique vistors in July, up more than 130% from June. Or The New York Times which had 43.85 million unique visitors in July.