Has The Age Of Über-Cocooning Begun? Digital Media October Boxscores
Steve Smith

Marketers and researchers have been speculating that the Internet will be one of the biggest beneficiaries of the current economic crisis. Cultural prognosticator Faith Popcorn says stay-at-home "über-cocooning" will be the immediate response to hard times. October generally is a strong month for service content anyway as the weather turns and holidays loom, but the high double-digit gains at many sites suggests Americans may be hunkering down with the cheapest form of entertainment they have: broadband.

Ironically, AmEx Publishing's TRAVELANDLEISURE.COM was way up (+58.92% page views and +25.66% unique visitors versus September 2008) off of portal partnerships and redesigned functionality that also benefited FOODANDWINE.COM (+11.78% PVs, +4.40% UVs). Likewise, Meredith's BHG.COM (+47.96% PVs, +47.76% UVs) topped 6 million users for a new high and MARTHASTEWART.COM's (+51.41% PVs, +43.89% UVs) 4.8 million visitors was up over 1 million from its usual levels. Some good old fashioned cross-linking super-sized CondéNet's heretofore diminutive WMAGAZINE.COM (+888.87% PVs, +1,251.18% UVs) with a Brangelina photo shoot that Perez Hilton and PEOPLE.COM shared with their users.

Another possible über-cocooning effect is the emphasis on home electronics, with sites like Hachette's POPPHOTO.COM (+46.73% PVs, +4.42% UVs) and SOUNDANDVISION.COM (+18.61% PVs, +7.26% UVs) ballooning in the one category consumers continue to favor. Of course, the Internet may be in for some competition, with our friends at BIGResearch reporting that Americans' intent to purchase plummeted this fall in most categories and accelerated in only one (wait for it)...tvs.

See the full chart in min.    

 Unique Visitors: Unduplicated audience coming to the site this month, often retrieved from third-party panel based measurement services

Steve Smith (popeyesmith@comcast.net) is Digital Media editor for min/min's b2b/minonline.com. He posts regularly on The Minsider blog and directs the min Webinars. Smith also co-chairs the annual min Day