The Denver Post’s digital properties together reached more than 7.1 million people in January, a figure more than double the next largest media outlet in Colorado, according to digital analytics firm comScore.
The data — released in mid-February — was 41 percent higher than January 2016, when the Denver Broncos began their playoff run to winning Super Bowl 50. Those figures include de-duplicated data for denverpost.com, The Cannabist and The Know, The Post’s new entertainment vertical.
Mobile devices accounted for 5.56 million of those unique visitors, nearly 5 million on smartphones and 613,000 on tablets. About 1.9 million came from desktop. The audience was split roughly equal between men and women — 47.5 percent to 52.5 percent, respectively.
The Cannabist hauled in 959,000 unique visitors, a 48 percent increase over the same month a year ago, comScore reported. That figure was ahead of industry publication marijuana.com, which drew 937,000 unique visitors, and High Times, which pulled in 736,000 uniques, a 27 percent decrease. About 30 percent of The Cannabist’s audience was 18 to 24 years old, 24.3 percent was 25 to 34 years old.
By itself, denverpost.com reached 5.9 million unique visitors, an 18.5 percent increase over January 2016.
Among Denver news organizations, KDVR-Channel 31 continued its months-long digital growth spurt, which couples with an increase in its TV ratings. The outlet climbed to 3.46 million unique visitors in January, a 59 percent increase over the same month a year ago. That figure topped longtime TV ratings behemoth KUSA-Channel 9, which drew 3.28 million unique visitors, a 37 percent drop since January 2016. In third was KMGH-Channel 7 with 2.27 million uniques, followed by CBS Denver, which had nearly 2 million uniques, a 15 percent decrease. The Gazette in Colorado Springs drew 884,000 uniques, a 20 percent increase, and Westword pulled in 609,000 uniques, a 39 percent increase.
ComScore data for other media outlets — Colorado Public Radio and Denverite, among them — was not available. But data from the Amazon-owned web analytics firm Alexa showed The Post was the 319th most popular website in the U.S. in mid-March, followed by 9NEWS at 3,393, KDVR at 4,134, Westword at 7,164, the Gazette at 13,218, CPR at 26,723 and Denverite at 40,345. Globally on Feb. 15, The Post was the ranked 1,552 in the world by traffic, according to Alexa.
In total, The Post pulled in 27 million page views across its properties in January, 16 million of them mobile, while KUSA pulled in 31 million, 12 million of them mobile. KMGH had 11 million page views, KDVR pulled in 10 million, and CBS Denver and The Gazette each pulled in 4 million. Westword attracted 2 million. In the Denver market, KUSA attracted 17 million page views to The Post’s 5 million.
The Post’s audience continues to skew toward older millennials and younger Generation X consumers. In January, 45 percent of its unique viewers were between 18 and 34 years old compared to 35 percent of KUSA’s. Those 18 to 24 years old (22.6 percent) and 25 to 34 (23.6 percent) were the two largest groups in The Post’s audience. That remained true for only denverpost.com, with about 1 in 5 unique visitors between the ages 18 and 24, and 23.5 percent 25 to 34 years old.
In the Denver market in January, The Post reached 17.6 percent of the total internet audience, or 448,000 uniques, according to comScore. 9News was second with 14.1 percent, or 358,000 uniques; KMGH third with 9.7 percent, or 248,000 uniques; KDVR fourth with 8 percent, or 204,000 uniques; CBS Local was next with 6 percent, or and Westword with 2.4 percent.
The Gazette did not register in the Denver market in January, but averaged 1.3 percent reach of the Denver market over November, December and January. In the Colorado Springs-Pueblo market, it averaged 9.3 percent (54,000 unique visitors) over those three months, while The Post reached 5.7 percent (33,000 uniques) of that market during the same stretch.
