Tribune Digital Traffic Hits All-Time High

Tribune Broadcasting reported record-breaking traffic to its local news websites in the month of January, with more than double the number of unique visitors compared to the same time period a year earlier.

Tribune Broadcasting’s local station group’s websites attracted 90 million unique visitors in January 2015, compared to 42 million in January 2014, according to Google Analytics — an increase of more than 100%. Compared to similar local broadcast station groups tracked by comScore, Tribune Broadcasting’s local news websites ranked No. 1 in traffic for the month, according to Tribune.

“The significant increase in traffic in January is due to a series of deliberate changes aimed at providing richer and more relevant digital content to users,” said Larry Wert, Tribune Broadcasting’s president of broadcast media. “One of the first things we did after acquiring Local TV’s station group was re-launch our 40-plus websites with a common platform so that we could better share content and best practices. The result has enabled us to roll-out a new unified strategy built around content, stronger emphasis on video, social media, and a better user experience in which we serve more of our news to more people across the country.”

In addition, Tribune’s local broadcast sites steadily grew total unique visitors from quarter to quarter throughout 2014, according to Google Analytics.

The company has expanded both live streaming and on-demand video.  Tribune Broadcasting stations collectively have more than 10 million fans on Facebook, nearly three million followers on Twitter, and 4 million active users of their iPhone and Android apps.

KCPQ (Seattle), WITI (Milwaukee), and WXIN (Indianapolis) saw sizable increases in their website traffic, as the Seahawks, Packers, and Colts made deep runs in the NFL Playoffs in January, with the Seahawks appearing in the Super Bowl.  Severe weather across the Northeast and Midwest also drew huge numbers of unique visitors to the websites of Tribune Broadcasting’s local news stations in those areas of the country.