According to Marc Phillips, Principal of APT Strategies, "If portals was the buzz word last financial year, convergence is one of the most important words this year. Strategic alliances and stock deals between old and new media companies are typically seen as the sharp end of convergence. Where the deals and options really pay off is on TV screens and computer monitors."

With audiences watching and reading less than a decade ago - there are still only 24 hours in a day - but with more media to 'graze', the value of the audience rises. And the reason convergence will be key for advertisers and media owners in Australia is that a more elusive audience is more costly to reach and is the cornerstone of a business.

An APT Strategies spokesman said, "across most media, but particularly with the Internet, audience convergence with traditional media is a symbiotic process. As technological difference becomes less relevant to an audience, delivery at maximum convenience across any platform is essential.

Hence audience crossover between the Internet, TV, Radio and Newspapers is critical with many people entertaining their ears while their eyes surf the Internet. Even at this relatively early stage online audiences dynamics are scrutinised carefully. Although the total value of online advertising is small, the relative cost, (versus other media) of reaching that slice of the audience can be valuable to an advertiser. This is the case with 18-34 Men who use the Internet frequently. At the younger end of this group they roam music, sports and games sites. Into their thirties, the audience wants information."

Mark Long, Head of Statistical Research for APT Strategies, describes how the report details how APT Strategies recently examined audience Internet traffic between many of Australia's top websites: Yahoo, Altavista, NineMSN, Sydney Morning Herald, News.com.au, The Age and OzEmail to list a few. The combination of NineMSN with Yahoo and Altavista produced high levels of reach. With Ozemail, The Age and Sydney Morning Herald, the combined reach over all these websites was almost half the level of the first combination.

Important for publishers is that the report identifies there is another way to look at audiences - namely by their frequency of visiting a site. Loyalty. Again, for those NineMSN users who visited more than 5+ times within a four week period, both Altavista and Yahoo had the highest levels of shared traffic. Those sites, in conjunction with NineMSN frequent visitors, with lower levels of combined coverage were The Age, Sydney Morning Herald and News.com.au.

These combinations are very broad. It would be incorrect to presume that only big numbers matter in the future. One per cent can be more valuable than 80 per cent. As has been shown with other media and across media, holding onto the audience, in a virtual sense, in any set of combinations is where the value lies. And is the pressure convergence exerts on all the players.

APT Strategies Cross Media Report results from the Australian Online Readership survey that features All Fairfax online properties (such as the Sydney Morning Herald, Australian Financial Review, The Trading Room, BRW, Citysearch and The Age (Melbourne), News.com.au, Yellow Pages, AltaVista, BigPond, Australian Stock Exchange, Seek Communications, JobNet, Commercial Dynamics, publishers of The Trading Post, ZDNet, Travel.com.au, Telstra White Pages. LookSmart, and OzEmail websites.

13,000 respondents completed the Cross Media survey in May, 1999.