News Digital Media says it scored almost 1.8 million hits and 16 million page impressions for its Beijing 2008 Olympics website, BeijingNow between November 8-20.

Editor Rod Savage says the site has been an instant success: "We are very pleased with how the website is tracking.

“Unique browsers peaked on August 13, the day golden girl Stephanie Rice won her second gold medal in the 200m individual medley, and Michael Phelps won his seventh and eighth gold medals.”

News Digital Media national sales director Tony Prentice says BeijingNow "comfortably exceeded advertising sales targets".

The Beijing Games enabled News to unroll "a truly integrated sales proposition" to enable brands to leverage opportunities presented by the Olympics.

“We created integrated print and digital sponsorship packages that leveraged our cross- platform coverage, providing readers with up-to-the-minute information and allowing sponsors to be associated with great Olympic moments in our newspapers, on our websites and through mobile and SMS channels.”

Driven by a national team based in Sydney and Beijing, the site is accessed through links from the dailytelegraph.com.au, heraldsun.com.au, couriermail.com.au, adelaidenow.com.au, perthnow.com.au and flagship www.news.com.au site.