THE Fiji Times Online is the most powerful news website in the country.
This has been revealed in the Fiji Media Survey conducted by internationally-accredited market research agency, Tebbutt Research.
The survey found that the website had the highest reach when compared with other news websites in the country. According to the survey, of the 2004 people polled, 44.4 per cent log on to the Fiji Times Online.
Of all the people surveyed, 33.1 per cent said they visited the website in the past seven days and 9.1 per cent said they had visited the website “yesterday”.
Commenting on the survey, The Fiji Times publisher Hank Arts said www.fijitimes.com.fj attracted an average of 900,000 visits each month.
“These are incredible numbers and again shows the strength of The Fiji Times content,” Mr Arts said.
He said what was encouraging was that the online readership continued to grow.
“Our focus on increasing updates on a regular basis throughout the day makes this a live website, one that readers can go to for updates as and when they come to hand.
“Senior editors appointed to purely focus on the online site are making an impact.”
Mr Arts said the recently launched e-Edition was also taking off well and would surely be a news force in the future.
The Fiji Times editor-in-chief Fred Wesley said this was encouraging news.
“It gives us a gauge of where we stand and obviously is a reflection of the efforts now being put into this part of the editorial department,” Wesley said.
“We appreciate the value online readership adds to the newspaper and vice versa.
“It reaffirms our belief in the value of The Fiji Times and the role we can play in moving our nation forward. We are continuously encouraged and inspired by the massive number of hits we get daily online.”
According to the number of people polled, 38.3 per cent visited the Fiji Sun online, 30.6 per cent visited Fijivillage website, 31.4 per cent visited Fijilive, 29.5 per cent visited FBC website and 23.8 per cent visited Fiji One online. A total of 2004 people aged 14 years and above from main urban and peri-urban locations in Viti Levu — the greater Suva (Lami, Suva, Nasinu, Nausori) areas and the Western Division (Nadi and Lautoka) — were interviewed for the survey.
The sample design is broadly in line with population, with over-sampling of smaller demographic cells.
Data is post-weighted to the known population of sampled locations on all strata (using Fiji Bureau of Statistics Population Census figures), the research agency stated about this survey.
The survey also revealed that 87.5 per cent of all newspaper readers read The Fiji Times.
