In the last hour I checked the size of the front page of six news web sites using http://analyze.websiteoptimization.com. Here are the results:
- Fairfax’s Stuff – 1.7MB
- The New Zealand Herald – 450Kb
- The Sydney Morning Herald – 940Kb
- The Australian – 874Kb
- Radio New Zealand News – 88Kb
- ABC News Radio – 294Kb
So you can read the Radio New Zealand News page 200 times and still download less data than a single read of Stuff.
While these numbers may not be important if you’ve got broadband and an unlimited download plan, they make a huge difference when you are on the end of a slow link or paying through the nose for each megabyte of data.
None of the sites attempted to show one of those awful TV style advertisements during this test. I hate to think what they might add to the totals.
Update: The National Business Review weighs in at 398Kb.
While it might be a big snide to point out that Radio NZ doesn’t have to worry about video, I do think that as a government organisation they take accessibility (beyond vision impairment) seriously. I suspect they’re well aware that there are still Kiwis on dial up connections or (even more) expensive broadband out in the provinces!
Good point. I should also mention the cost of viewing hefty web pages over mobile broadband. When I’m out with a laptop – or even my iPad, the cost of reading a few Stuff pages is higher than buying the printed newspaper.