the Web Chef's e-Bytes

Web Tidbits - Top Online Newspapers by Unique Visitors

Editor & Publisher provided interesting information on Nielsen data showing the growth in online newspaper readership from Sept 2007 to Sept 2008 among the top 30 visited sites.  Interestingly the Anchorage Daily News broke their record growing by 928% year over year.  This growth was based on the McCain campaign selection of Sarah Palin as his running mate and the excellent news coverage that the Anchorage Daily News has had in covering her selection, Troopergate and the Senator Stevens trial.  Another big winner was The Wall Street Journal that grew 94% to 9 million unique visitors in Sept 2008, reflecting the financial turmoil generating more and more interest in financial news.

Newspapers and the Internet - Good, Bad and Ugly

Editor and Publisher has an interesting article "Web Editors Reveal Flops and Failures" discussing the ways that newspapers have succeeded and failed with their online initiatives.  For anyone with an interest in online content strategies the article is quite interesting in describing the lessons learned.  Among those referenced are the following:

1. Blogs can backfire - typically from lack of reader interest or from content that doesn't connect
2. Technology can flop - interesting discussion of how the The Denver Post added a feature where content was refreshed every ten minutes in an effort to be very timely only to find that crossword puzzle lovers complained after losing their work or the failure of contextual ads for example where one paper had a story about unusual adult coated brownies only to find a Google ad next to it for brownies.
3. Readers can get ugly - with reader opinions ready to go ( I know I've added my voice once in awhile), content filters that editors provide have been missed with racy or inappropriate comments.
4. Not everyone wants to chat
5. Local content might be limiting
6. Pay for content can backfire
7. Print stories don't always translate to the web
8. Be selective in Podcasts
9. Manage the obits
10. Watch out on the types of databases that you provide
11. Separate Web and Print Sales Staffs Don't Succeed
12. Traffic spikes can cause unintended consequences

Read the article for specific case studies for each lesson learned.

Newspapers Grow Online

Susan Mernit's blog has an interesting posting looking at online newspaper readership, a topic I've covered in prior postings on the Web Chef's e-Bytes (See Online Newspaper Readership Continues to Grow, Newspaper Blogs Growing and Newspaper Audiences - Online & Offline).  She reports on a a Newspaper Association of America release that online newspaper web site audiences are growing at a faster rate than other online content providers.  She continues to de-construct these results with analysis showing that while growing they haven't seen the "torrid" growth of social networking sites and that the demographic profile of readers they are reaching may still not be the preferred younger demo. 

One positive she quotes is Borrell Research data that shows newspapers capturing 95% of all local advertising. 

Online Newspaper Readership Continues to Rise

Newspaper publishers must be sighing with relief if not jumping with joy, as they continue to see increasing online readership of the news according to data compiled from the Newspaper Association of America's Newspaper Audience Database (NAdbase).  Nielsen/Net Ratings research shows that year over year there was a 15% increase in unique visitors to newspaper sites.  Even better news for the industry is Scarborough research data showing that there was an increase in key demographic segments favored by some advertisers with the 25 - 34 year old segment increasing 13.7% and the 18 - 24 year old segment seeing an increase of 9.2%.   The research also found that combined between these two segments 65.8% read a newspaper during the week.

What the report doesn't address is the growing trend of online newspapers to use Web 2.0 tools to enhance their products.  Leading papers are utilizing RSS, including video and audio podcasts, photo sharing, blogs, improved word of mouth marketing features and enhanced reader comment sections.

UPDATE
Proving that a web 2.0 community centric strategy works, Media Post reports that Nielsen Net Ratings research shows that USAToday.com has seen a 380% increase in visitor registrations and a 21% increase in unique visitors since their site re-design launch in February.

New IBM Study on Evolving Digital Content Business Models

IBM has released a new study "Navigating the Media Divide: Innovating and Enabling New Business Models" according to a recent AdWeek article.  The 35 page report developed by IBM's Institute for Business Value is available as a PDF on IBM's web site.

The report focuses on what they call the media divide between content owners and content distributors, certainly an interesting topic given the recent public conflict we've seen between YouTube and a number of traditional content developers like Viacom. 

The results of the study led to predictions of four diverging business models through 2010.  The models are:

1. Traditional Media - "walled conditional access with dedicated devices"
2. Walled communities - "distribution of niche and user generated content with conditional access through dedicated devices"
3. Content hyper-syndication- "professionally produced content available through open and portable channels"
4. New platform aggregation - "User generated content and an open distibution platform"

Page 11 of the report has a nice visual representation using our favorite 4 box strategic overview for each of these models with content source on the y axis ranging from user/community contribution to produced by professionals and on the y axis distribution and device platforms from proprietary to open.

Among the drivers for this content innovation according to the study are the growth of high speed access (both mobile and fixed), new device adoption, evolving regulations and new consumer behavior.

The analysis led to the following recommendations for media companies

1. Put consumers at the center of your business
2. Convert consumer data into competitive advantage
3. Give controal to get share
4. Deliver experiences, not content
5. Leverage virtual worlds
6. Innovate business models
7. Invest in interatctive, measurable advertising serrvices and platforms
8. Redefine partnerships, while mitigating fallout
9. Shift investments from traditional business to new models
10. Create a flexible design

Each of these are further expanded on in the study.

Newspaper Blogs Growing

Slowly but surely the "mainstream media" is starting to get it. 

They are recognizing that their product can be enhanced with web 2.0 tools like podcasts, video, blogs or enhanced discussion forums.  I've seen this with the publications that I like to view online including the Wall Street Journal, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and Madison.com.

According to Nielsen Net Ratings research, blog readership of the top 10 online newspapers grew by 210% in 2006.  In an article in the Center for Media Research, Nielsen Net Ratings Senior Director of Media Analytics Carolyn Creekmore is quoted as saying "that it makes perfect sense for online newspapers, where responding to a blog posting is like writing an instant letter to the editor."  I like this analogy and have found myself responding not only on newspaper blogs, but also in open comments on a story/editorial when I feel passionately about an issue.

Learned on Women, a blog focusing on marketing to women also covered this story, reporting that the research found that newpspaper blog readership is reported to be more prevalent among males with 66% of readers being male and 34% female. 

Media Trends - Web Surpasses Newspaper

Editor and Publisher reports on a new government study published in the Census Bureau's Statistical Abstract of the U.S. that discusses media utilization.  The report shows that the use of the Internet is projected to surpass newspaper readership next year.  The total number of hours spent each day with media is projected to be 9 1/2 hours with yearly usage of each media reviewed projected at the following:

1. Television - 1,555 hours
2. Radio - 974 hours
3. Internet - 195 hours
4. Newspaper - 175 hours
5. Magazines - 122 hours
6. Books - 106 hours
7. Video games - 86 hours

The media utilization numbers were reportedly taken from the "Communications Industry Forecast & Report" compiled Veronis Suhler Stevenson according to the article.

Newspaper Audiences - Online & Offline

Media Post reports on research sponsored by the Newspaper Association of America confirming the growing readership of online newspapers.  The research found an increase of 31% in unique online readers.  At the New York Times, the number of people reading the online version now exceeds print circulation according to a recent report in their paper.

The positive online readership data has to be a welcome signal for newspapers as they see their paid print circulations continuing to decline.  The Audit Bureau of Circulation in a New York Times article reported that daily circulation had dropped by 2.8% and Sunday circulation by 3.4% over the past six months ending September 30th.  Total daily circulation now stands at 43.7 million a significant drop from the all time high of 63.3 million in 1984 (pre-Internet and other media). Newspapers in major markets with high penetration rates for broadband fared worse than those without. 

In other newspaper related news, research by the American Press Institute found that advertisers did not think newspapers were working together across geographic boundaries to create a more effective media buy.  This research looked at both online and offline newspaper advertising purchases.

These research finding follow on previous studies that I reported on in an earlier post looking at newspaper readership demographics at some of the major city papers.