When newspapers go online
A recent study of America’s top 100 newspaper websites, entitled “American Newspapers and the Internet; Threat or Opportunity?” by Bivings Research, revealed that using the Internet to expand a newspaper’s reach is becoming more and more important. 92% of America’s top 100 papers now offer video on their websites… a significant jump from 2006, where just 61 percent offered video.
Within these,
39 papers offer original content
26 use AP video streams
13 offer video content from local news outlets
4 use all three technologies
10 papers use a mixture of two different types of video
Erin Teeling, New Media Associate, The Bivings Group, says “While many industry experts fear that the Internet will spell the end of newspapers as we know them, … (the team at) TBG feels that the Internet presents newspapers with a unique opportunity to make up for lost circulation and readership. (The) study explores… the difficulties facing newspapers regarding online advertising, shrinking staffs, and reaching out to consumers.”
Other findings include:
95% of papers offer at least one reporter blog.
29% now require users to register before gaining full access to their website, of which 3 require a paid subscription.
67% of newspapers now allow comments on articles
Download the complete report [pdf]
USA Today has been one of the pioneers in introducing a number of User Generated Content features on their website.
Update: According to this article from Reuters, The New York Times Co. plans to stop charging Internet users for access to its columnists and Op-Ed pieces on a section of its Web site known as TimesSelect, The New York Post reported on Tuesday.
In other news, UK Association of Online Publishers’ Dual Consumption Survey, looking at usage and attitudes across AOP member websites and their offline equivalents, found that 60 per cent of newspaper readers consider online easier to access than print. For magazine readers, the preference was less marked, though 48 per cent of respondents still favoured the publications’ websites for ease of access.
Filed under: Business, Media, Statistics, Trends