Blog Readers Are Younger and Richer

Network World reports on a new study called “Behaviors of the Blogosphere” conducted by comScore Networks, that found visitors to blogs tend to be younger and to belong to a wealthier household. Much of the information (at least what is mentioned in the NW article) is unsurprising, for example, blog visitors are more active online, visiting almost twice as many Web pages as the average Internet user.

“ComScore found that blog visitors represent a demographically attractive advertising audience. Blog visitors are disproportionately likely to be affluent, young and broadband-enabled,” reads the study, published this week.

Blog visitors are 11% more likely than the average Internet user to have incomes of $75,000 or more, and are 30% more likely to live in households headed by someone between the ages of 18 and 34, the study found.

The study was sponsored by Gawker Media and Six Apart, companies well known in the blogosphere, and has attracted some criticism, most notably from Jason Calacanis, of Gawker competitor Weblogs, Inc. Network. He is concerned about the visitors to blogs in the report (specifically Gawker.com and Gawker owned Fleshbot.com having a higher number of visitors than Slashdot) and has asked Comscore to back up their report with hard numbers.

While the study is pretty interesting, Calacanis raises some great points about transparency in the blogosphere. Decide for yourself, here’s a copy of the study (PDF), and check out Calacanis’s blog for the latest updates on the controversy.