Friday, April 13, 2007

Last newspaper post for a while, I promise.

Seattle Times decided not to hire me, so my brain and blog will be moving on. But I'm still getting mail from readers saying that newspapsers are doomed, including clippings from the mergers that are going on.

I think the national newspapers are in trouble. I think that newspapers without a vibrant web site are in trouble. But I think hybreds and eventually online only papers are just find.

The Seattle Times is doing much better with their ads in the last couple of weeks! I think they are going the right direction, i.e. towards profitability.

Here is another study:


15% Increase in Visits to Newspaper Websites

According to NAdbase released in April, 36 percent of all Internet users visited a newspaper Web site in November, 2006, and page views for newspaper Web sites increased 27 percent year over year during the second half of 2006. This latest report shows that during the second half of 2006, unique visitors to newspaper Web sites averaged 57.3 million visitors a month, or one in three of all Internet users, a 15 percent increase over the same period a year ago.

The 2007 campaign comes on the heels of last year’s success, when more than 1,000 newspapers reached more than 100 million readers, and coincides with the release of the spring 2007 Newspaper Audience Database report. In addition, 136,000 advertisers visited the campaign Web site to learn about the value of newspaper media.

NAA Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer, John Kimball, said “…newspapers are succeeding in driving new innovations and growing their audiences in both size and value… no better time to launch our 2007 newspaper value campaign than the very day we provide advertisers with audience data spanning the medium’s full portfolio of print and digital products.”

The report says that newspaper Web sites have contributed to a 13.7 percent increase in total newspaper audience for the coveted 25- to 34-year-old demographic and a 9.2 percent increase for 18- to 24-year-olds.

The NAdbase analysis also shows that:

Nearly three out of four adults in the top 50 markets (115 million) read the newspaper over the course of a week (5 weekdays/1 Sunday)

65.8 percent of 18- to 34-year olds in the top 50 markets read a newspaper during the course of a week

76.9 percent of 35- to 54-year-olds, and 84.2 percent of those 55 and older, read a newspaper in the previous week

John F. Sturm, NAA President and CEO, concludes “… The ad campaign emphasizes newspaper’s ability to combine the strengths of the Internet and print while expanding its reach and influence in a time of critical transformation for the industry.”


For the complete information release, and more about Newspaper Audience Data, please visit here.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I saw this after reading your blog and though you would be interested.

Online Newspaper Readers a "Sophisticated Audience"

According to the Newspaper Association of America, more than 59 million people (37.3 percent of all active Internet users) visited newspaper Web sites during the second quarter of 2007, a record number that represents a 7.7 percent increase over the same period a year ago,.

In addition, newspaper Web site visitors generated nearly 2.7 billion page views per month throughout the quarter, compared to slightly more than 2.5 billion during the same period last year. And, more than 60 million people visited newspaper Web sites during May 2007 that month, more than any month on record.

NAA President and CEO, John F. Sturm, said "... readers are visiting newspaper Web sites in record numbers for in-depth news and information as well as hyper-local information... These sites ... (offer) thought-provoking blogs to complement the journalistic excellence that makes newspapers a community's most trusted resource."

In addition to this data, Nielsen//NetRatings reports that users spent a combined 7.2 billion minutes browsing newspaper Web sites during the second quarter during nearly 1.4 billion total visits.

Sturm added that "... the amount of time users spend enjoying a newspaper's digital content further establishes these sites as premier online destinations for a demanding and sophisticated audience."

Brandy Galos said...

Wow!! Thanks for this.

The more I think about it, I think good content done well and a way to bring people to your door is all it takes. (All!)

Newspapers have a headstart on this, but most of them have no idea what they have.

Also, while I'm on this subject again, in a previous post I said something about how few advertisments the Seattle Times had. They have since changed their policy and have ebraced ads. Oh my have they embraced ads. Almost to the point of rudeness.