The Denver Post’s total digital audience surged to a record in September, totaling 7.89 million unique visitors, more than doubling the reach of its closest in-market competitor, digital analytics firm comScore reported.
It’s the largest audience since at least October 2014, the oldest data available from comScore. Seven of the last nine months have all shown audience gains as The Post continues a company-wide effort to attract digital readers. September’s figure was an 89.3 percent jump in uniques over the same month a year ago. The Post attracted 6.2 million mobile-only unique visitors.
Its main digital property — denverpost.com — was up 58 percent year-over-year in unique visitors with 6.4 million.
KDVR-Channel 31 attracted more digital audience for the first time than KUSA-Channel 9, the longtime dominant broadcast market leader. KDVR’s uniques were 3 million, up 32.9 percent year-over-year. KUSA was third with 2.77 million uniques, a 31.7 percent year-over-year decrease; Scripps-owned KMGH-Channel 7 drew 2.46 million uniques, a 2.8 percent decrease over the same month last year; KCNC-Channel 4 had 1.99 million uniques, a 73 percent year-over-year increase; Village Voice Media-owned Westword drew 913,000 uniques, a 71 percent jump; and the Colorado Springs Gazette — owned by businessman and billionaire Phil Anschutz — drew 905,000 uniques, a 54 percent year-over-year spike.
The Post and KUSA continued to lead in page views, with KUSA attracting 27 million to The Post’s 24 million in September, comScore data show. KDVR pulled in 8 million page views.
In video, which continues to be a focus for the news organization as readers continue to migrate online, The Post attracted 1.76 million views for September, according to internal figures. That was a 12 percent month-over-month increase and a 123 percent spike year-over-year.
The Cannabist — The Post’s digital property that covers the marijuana industry and its culture — attracted 801,000 unique visitors, a slight decline from last month, but still 198 percent year-over-year greater than a year ago. Marijuana.com brought in 923,000 uniques, a slight year-over-year increase, while High Times captured 720,000 uniques, a nearly 12 percent year-over-year decline.
A chart showing the total digital audience of top news outlets in Colorado.
The Post’s reach within the Denver market continued to outpace other local outlets. In September, The Post attracted 14.7 percent of comScore’s total internet audience in Denver, while KUSA reached 10.8 percent. KDVR reached 8.4 percent, KMGH stood at 8.2 percent, KCNC hit 3.5 percent and Westword grabbed 2.5 percent. On average for September, August and July, The Post reached 14 percent of the market, while KUSA reached 9.5 percent.
The Post’s reach is typical of other newspaper publishers online in their respective markets. The Chicago Tribune reached 19.5 percent of the total internet audience in Chicago over that three months, the Seattle Times 17.7 percent of people in Seattle, the Arizona Republic 15.8 percent in Phoenix, the Dallas Morning News 12.4 percent in the Dallas-Ft. Worth area, and the Miami Herald 10.8 percent in the Miami-Fort Lauderdale area, comScore data show.