The Times reaches digital record high

Published 5:00 am Friday, December 22, 2017

The digital reach of The Cullman Times’ website – cullmantimes.com – has hit an all-time high for unique visitors, according to monthly analytics released this week.

In November, the newspaper’s website registered 245,573 unique visitors – online measurables identify a unique visitor for each IP address that contacts a website.

“This is great news when you consider during the same period last year, 145,872 unique visitors went to cullmantimes.com,” Cullman Times Publisher Terry Connor said. “As our delivery platforms continue to adjust to meet market demands, our overall audience, which combines the print newspaper, niche publications and all digital platforms, continues to grow.”

Connor said the combined print and digital volumes pushed The Times’ audience to record numbers, providing advertisers outstanding options to reach more consumers.

“More readers are turning to our content through our online platforms,” he said. “Our delivery platforms provide advertisers with an excellent medium to reach Cullman County consumers plus those in the outlying areas who exclusively use our online services where the print edition is not available.”

In addition to the website’s unique visitors, November analytics show there were 606,506 digital page views. The analytics also show that more than half of the monthly unique visitors use a mobile device to access cullmantimes.com, highlighting the mobility of the Cullman market and readers seeking immediate information. 

For the seven-month period ending in November, cullmantimes.com averaged 580,877 monthly page views and 157,256 unique visitors, which puts The Times’ website among the top online sites in the Cullman market.

Social media also represents an important content presentation segment of The Times’ digital platforms with some 33,000-plus Facebook followers and likes and more than 8,600 Twitter followers. Additionally, almost 2,000 people receive free digital breaking news alerts and daily headline service offered by the newspaper.

“It’s an exciting and challenging time to be in the newspaper business,” Connor said. “Similar to most industries, newspapers are transforming and continue to update digital platforms to compliment our traditional print edition. Today, our digital and print editions, including niche glossy magazines like Cullman Magazine or Faith & Family, go hand-in-hand to reach a constantly-changing audience.”

Connor said The Times’ ongoing mission moving into 2018 as Cullman’s leading media company is to deliver award-winning community journalism and content to its audience while at the same time providing advertisers multiple platforms to showcase their products and services to The Times’ audience.