The Newspaper Association of America (NAA) opened its national convention today with the requisite study/press release: a custom analysis by Nielsen/Net Ratings.NetView shows the newspaper web site audience is growing at nearly twice the rate of overall internet audience. This, of course, is viewed as validation of the industry’s investment in things digital. The details:

-- An average of more than 59 million people—37.6 percent of all active internet users-- visited newspaper sites monthly during 1Q07, a 5.3 percent increase year over year compared with 2.7 percent for the overall online audience.

-- Nearly 42 percent of those visiting newspaper sites have viewed streaming video in past 20 days, compared with 27.4 percent overall.

-- 11.9 percent of those who have visited a newspaper site have annual household income of $150,000 compared with 9.3 percent overall.

-- Nearly 73 percent of newspaper site users go online everyday compared with 57.8 percent of overall users.

-- Newspaper site users are more likely to read blogs—28.4 percent compared with 16.7 percent.  They’re also more likely to post product reviews. (38.9 percent versus 16.1 percent.)

Update: In the comments, Jakob Nielsen raises a good question about amount of use. The NAA staff came up with a link to a chart that tracks usage and other stats since 2004. The average varies but newspaper sites have seen growth in time spent year over year.