A study from the research company suggests that only one in five visitors to the sites accessed content behind the paywall.
It claimed that the number of unique UK visitors had plummeted from 3.1 million in the second quarter of 2010 to 1.78 million in the three months since the sites went behind a paywall in July. The average number of unique users who went behind the paywall in the third quarter was put at just 362,000.
The drop-off will worry marketers contemplating advertising on the websites.
According to John Baylon, group digital trading director at Starcom MediaVest, of most concern will be the dip in the number of 25- to 34-year-old visitors. This key age group accounted for only 13% of visitors, down from 22% in the previous quarter.
However, Baylon said such a drop was inevitable, given the reluctance of younger consumers to pay for content.
The proportion of visitors from households with an income of £50,000-£80,000 rose from 25% to 29%.
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