THEY DIDN'T EVEN WATCH THE OSCARS ON THE WEB: If media watchers were sobered by the fact that this year's Academy Awards telecast drew the lowest television ratings on record, the news gets even worse: The Web didn't fare a whole lot better.
Celebrity-focused Web sites reported an increase in traffic, but those who reported news from the event (Gary Busey's rabid attack on Jennifer Garner) fared better than sites that simply uploaded red-carpet photos. On Sunday, people.com's unique visitors increased 56 percent to 1.5 million, while page views grew 49 percent to 20.3 million. Monday's traffic also beat last year's — uniques jumped 23 percent to 2.5 million, and page views increased 10 percent to 57 million. Us Weekly nearly doubled the number of page views on Oscar Sunday, to 1.3 million, while Monday's page views grew 64 percent to 3.9 million. Ew.com, which gets more traffic in the week before the show because the site forecasts Oscar picks and reports industry chatter prior to the big event, saw a 150 percent gain in page views that week, to 22.4 million. Sunday's page views more than doubled to 2.5 million, and Monday's page views increased 19 percent.
But fewer people seemed interested in the red-carpet fashion the day after. In Style, which focuses on Oscar fashions, saw Sunday's unique visitors and page views increase 40 percent and 68 percent, respectively, over last year. But Monday's numbers declined. Unique visitors fell 27 percent to 174,268, while page views decreased 37 percent to 2.9 million. Style.com also reported declining unique visitors on Sunday and Monday. The site reported 89,000 uniques (down 7 percent) on Sunday and 128,000 uniques (down 7 percent) on Monday. Page views increased slightly on Monday, to 8.6 million.
Finally, Vanity Fair, who signaled to Hollywood it was not in a celebratory mood when it canceled its annual Oscar bash at Craft weeks before the ceremony, reported a 25 percent decline in traffic from last year across Sunday, Monday and Tuesday. A spokeswoman attributed the drop to the fact that the magazine had no party coverage on its site. So that was the reason for the party. — Stephanie D. Smith
Celebrity-focused Web sites reported an increase in traffic, but those who reported news from the event (Gary Busey's rabid attack on Jennifer Garner) fared better than sites that simply uploaded red-carpet photos. On Sunday, people.com's unique visitors increased 56 percent to 1.5 million, while page views grew 49 percent to 20.3 million. Monday's traffic also beat last year's — uniques jumped 23 percent to 2.5 million, and page views increased 10 percent to 57 million. Us Weekly nearly doubled the number of page views on Oscar Sunday, to 1.3 million, while Monday's page views grew 64 percent to 3.9 million. Ew.com, which gets more traffic in the week before the show because the site forecasts Oscar picks and reports industry chatter prior to the big event, saw a 150 percent gain in page views that week, to 22.4 million. Sunday's page views more than doubled to 2.5 million, and Monday's page views increased 19 percent.
But fewer people seemed interested in the red-carpet fashion the day after. In Style, which focuses on Oscar fashions, saw Sunday's unique visitors and page views increase 40 percent and 68 percent, respectively, over last year. But Monday's numbers declined. Unique visitors fell 27 percent to 174,268, while page views decreased 37 percent to 2.9 million. Style.com also reported declining unique visitors on Sunday and Monday. The site reported 89,000 uniques (down 7 percent) on Sunday and 128,000 uniques (down 7 percent) on Monday. Page views increased slightly on Monday, to 8.6 million.
Finally, Vanity Fair, who signaled to Hollywood it was not in a celebratory mood when it canceled its annual Oscar bash at Craft weeks before the ceremony, reported a 25 percent decline in traffic from last year across Sunday, Monday and Tuesday. A spokeswoman attributed the drop to the fact that the magazine had no party coverage on its site. So that was the reason for the party. — Stephanie D. Smith
