Web Week

Booming websites www.theindependent.co.nz

If baby boomers are the group with the most money in their pockets, they're a desirable group to have visiting your website. The demographic spans the 40 to 59 age group, who are popularly perceived as affluent, former hippies. But according to US actuarial firm Segal, it is not possible to generalise to that degree about boomers, since a 20-year period can encompass more than one generation. It's safe to say, however, that baby boomers are either at, entering, or soon to leave the mid-point of their working lives. A serious interest in work might explain the high proportion of boomers among visitors to the website of weekly business newspaper The Independent, as indicated by Nielsen//NetRatings chart, above.

Down on the farm www.ruralnews.co.nz

If The Independent is all business, Rural News caters to a more specialised kind of work. The publication's website has daily farming news, including every day's most important story - the weather forecast. The site has 2500 registered users; not many, perhaps, when the print publication claims more than 90 per cent of farmers as readers. But that could be a reflection of the spotty internet access in rural New Zealand.

New wave of nerds www.computerworld.co.nz

Baby boomers were the first generation for whom a career in the computer industry was possible. But if readership of the Computerworld site is a guide, it won't be long before boomers no longer dominate the industry. At 51 per cent of the site's audience, they're on the brink of being outnumbered by a new generation of nerds.

Playing the game www.virtualnpc.co.nz

Old hippies and rugby wouldn't seem to naturally belong together. Yet almost half the visitors to the virtualnpc website are boomers, according to Nielsen//NetRatings. It reinforces the Segal view that the boomers cannot be stereotyped.