U.S. newspaper Web sites had more than 68.3 million unique visitors on average, and reached 41.4 percent of the U.S. online population in the third quarter, up 15.8 percent year-over-year, according to a custom analysis by Nielsen Online for the Newspaper Association of America, Media Post reported Monday.

These site visitors also viewed an average of more than 3.5 billion pages per month throughout the quarter, a growth of 25.2 percent over the same period.

These figures are the highest since NAA started tracking the data in 2004, Media Post reported.

According to NAA President and CEO John F. Sturm, "… record audiences are trusting newspaper Web sites for comprehensive, up-to-the-minute reporting and analysis on the events that impact their lives… newspapers are the top local brands that readers turn to for information (to) help (with) challenging issues."

The active reach percentage, page views, pages per person, time per person and visits per person for the third quarter also set record highs, according to Media Post.

"The dramatic increase in page views suggests users are visiting newspaper Web sites frequently throughout the day," Randy Bennett, NAA's senior vice president of Audience and New Business Development, concluded in the study, Media Post reported.