WRAL OnLine Wins Again TV Site Breaks Record For Unique Visitors

WRAL OnLine scored a #1 rating again, logged record numbers, and is giving the News & Observer site some stiff competition. According to a report from Media Audit, in a recent trend among local television websites, the sites are closing in on the traffic numbers of local newspaper sites.

As for ratings, WRAL OnLine took a 19.4% share of the adult market in WRAL-TV's broadcasting area in the recent Media Audit report. That means WRAL Online is getting coverage equivalent to that of a radio station. In this ranking of over 300 local television news websites, no other Triangle station scored in the top 100.

During the same week The Media Audit published its findings, WRAL OnLine broke a record for unique visitors and scored its fourth best week ever. Over 567,800 visitors logged onto the site for the week ending February 25, most accessing stories about the death of NASCAR legend Dale Earnhardt and the impending winter weather. At the same time WRAL OnLine recorded 4.3 million page views, the fourth best week ever for the site.

WRAL OnLine is also giving Raleigh's News & Observer website a run for its money. Bob Jordan, co-founder of The Media Audit, said, "it's a very, very tight race." Historically, newspaper websites outpace their competitors in television, but four local television web sites nationwide have "attracted a larger audience from their immediate market than the leading daily newspaper," according to The Media Audit. Based on telephone interviews, the survey measured the impact of local media websites and also found that several markets such as Raleigh/Durham and Nashville show local television web sites gaining on the newspaper competition.

In a move to strengthen the award-winning WRAL OnLine, owner Capitol Broadcasting Company (CBC) partnered with Internet Broadcasting Systems (IBS) to run WRAL OnLine last fall. The conversion will afford WRAL more capacity for local news on the site because all national news will be collected by IBS. WRAL.com will be networked with IBS' other local news sites across the country.

The official conversion took place on February 1, 2001, with plans to re-launch the site with a new design, content and greater interactivity in mid-April.