There is a growing trend toward people using the Internet to get their news and to investigate particular issues and organizations. There is also growing evidence that what the public believes about you or your client's organization - in good times and bad - is substantially shaped by what they see, read and hear on the mass media, including the Internet. Therefore, it is important for Public Relations professionals to understand and assess cyber-media content, just as it is important to monitor and assess traditional media content.

For traditional media such as newspapers, magazines and television, we typically compare news outlets in the following dimensions:

• Audience size (e.g., circulation, viewers, listeners)
• Audience composition (e.g., % of audience that is your target market)
• Status (e.g., the generally agreed upon credibility of the news outlet)

Can we use the same metrics to assess Internet news sites? For the most part, the answer is yes. Internet audience size and composition data are offered by several commercial services. Status data is not generally available but can be easily generated on a custom basis. So while the Internet certainly does have characteristics setting it apart from traditional media-most notably its interactivity, it is really no different from other media when it comes to the basic criteria we use to judge the importance of news outlets.

After reading this paper you will be able to evaluate the offerings of the various commercial services that have begun providing data on Internet audiences. You will understand the jargon and how Internet measurement terms relate to the traditional media measurement terms that you probably already know. Armed with this knowledge, you will be able to make a first cut at determining which sites to monitor and analyze.