Online newspaper readership reached an all-time high in 2007, according to a Nielsen Online report for the Newspaper Association of America.

Average monthly unique visitors increased to all US newspaper Web sites by more than 6% in 2007 to 60 million.

The fourth quarter was particularly good for newspaper Web sites, averaging 62.8 million unique visitors a month. This was a 9% increase over 2006 and the largest quarter on record.

Almost 40% of all active US Internet users visited a newspaper Web site during the fourth quarter of 2007. Over 3 billion page views were generated during that period, and users averaged 44 minutes per month.

“Newspapers continue to successfully transform themselves into multimedia companies, offering unparalleled content that reaches an audience growing in both size and sophistication,” said NAA President and CEO John F. Sturm. [eMarketer]