The top five UK national newspaper Web sites reporting monthly ABCe figures saw slower reader traffic in December during the holidays, MediaGuardian reported Thursday.

Although traffic slumped during the holiday season, growth from the year prior remained strong, as three of the five sites saw traffic increase by more than 20 percent compared to December 2006.

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More Americans read newspapers online in 2007 than in the previous year, which marked a new record high, according to the latest data from the Newspaper Association of America.

The study pointed out that in 2007, 60 million people visited an online newspaper, compared with 56.4 million in 2006, up 6.3 percent in unique audience, Editor & Publisher reported Thursday.

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The Sun-Times Media Group will terminate its three weeklies published in the Chicago area after next week. It is the latest move of its cost-cutting strategy under the way.

Tammy Chase, STMG Director of Investor Relations, confirmed the news to Editor & Publisher Wednesday. She said Jan. 30 will be the last publication date for The Skyline, the Booster and the News Star.

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What will be the biggest threat to the traditional newspaper market? According to a survey targeting four Nordic countries, the Internet and free papers with editorial content were chosen by newspaper editors and managers as the top two competitors to traditional newspapers.

More than 70 percent of the survey's respondents thought the Internet will be the biggest threat, slightly down from the survey's 2006 figures. Free papers with editorial content was ranked second – over 65 percent chose free papers as a top competitor against traditional papers, which dropped about 10 percent from 2006, according to the Wilberg Management As study.

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