Shaping the Future of the Newspaper Blog - Circulation and Readership

Metro.co.uk enters into video content deal with ITN

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 14:45:36 -0600

UK free commuter daily Metro has entered into a video content deal with ITN to expand its online offerings, Journalism.co.uk reported yesterday.

Beginning today, Metro.co.uk is now offering its online readers with "up-to-the-minute" videos from ITN, spanning multiple genres that include UK news, world news, sports, showbiz, music, fashion and video gaming, DigitalSpy.co.uk reported

The Internet blurs the line between TV and newspapers

Wed, 01 Sep 2010 06:03:22 -0600

The defined line between newspapers, radio and television has become blurred in the online sphere, as all types of news sources have their respective websites, putting all media domains in direct competition. Glenn Beck, for example, a conservative media icon for Fox News in the United States, just launched his "News and Opinion" website The Blaze. As more people get their news from television than newspapers, it will be interesting to see how TV icons fair in competition with newspapers' websites.

Glenn Beck is widely known for his racy commentary on his television show. He is expanding his media empire online after already dominating radio, TV, and book publishing reports the Financial Times. The Blaze was released online Monday after Beck's "Restoring Honor" rally in Washington. "Too many important stories are overlooked. And too many times we see mainstream media outlets distorting facts to fit rigid agendas," Glenn comments on his website.

For more on this story, visit our sister publication, editorsweblog.org.

Yahoo takes on hyperlocal in San Francisco

Fri, 27 Aug 2010 09:31:07 -0600

Close on the heels of its Associated Content acquisition, "Yahoo has begun recruiting writers to begin building a local news site for the San Francisco area."

A recent email to registered Associated Content writers announced Yahoo's search for "writers living in or near the San Francisco area (like you!) to write compelling, local content -- ranging from highlights of your favorite neighborhood destinations to metro-wide, first-person reporting assignments covering the stories and topics not typically found in mainstream news media." This email confirmed speculations which had started earlier in the year when Yahoo advertised openings for local editors in San Francisco.

For more on this story, visit our sister publication, editorsweblog.org.

ABCe: Mail Online only newspaper website to post daily unique increase in July

Thu, 26 Aug 2010 14:40:51 -0600

Mail Online had a slight increase of 0.38 percent from June to July at 2,494,916 daily unique browsers. Its year-on-year growth in daily visitor numbers also rose by 44 percent, Media Guardian reported.

Could MouseTrace help newspapers build their web content based on user behaviour?

Thu, 26 Aug 2010 12:00:48 -0600

Newly launched MouseTrace offers website owners the ability to find out detailed activities of visitors. It "provides a complete view of how your visitors are using your website, recording every click, mouse movement," according to information provided on the product website: so website owners can see the exact paths that users take around their sites.

Declaring itself not a traditional 'web stats' company, MouseTrace works in collaboration with existing stats packages on a website, Google Analytics for example. It is able to monitor activity of an unlimited number of pages on a website, including secure (ssl) pages. It also monitors iPhone activity, providing information on page scrolling and zooming, as well as gestures and device rotation.

For more on this story, visit our sister publication, editorsweblog.org.

Survey: Three in four Chinese get news through microblogs

Wed, 25 Aug 2010 11:04:47 -0600

Microblogging has become very popular in China, where 73.5 of Internet users rely on microblogs, such as Twitter, to quickly receive news and information updates, according to a recent survey conducted by the China Youth Daily, Efe reported yesterday.

There is a general trust in the news delivered through these sites, as 56.5 percent of Chinese believe in the information provided by microblogs. However, 20.3 percent considered them to be "unreliable" while 23.2 percent remain uncertain about their credibility, Xinhua News Agency revealed.

Photo Source: Switched.com

What can Facebook Places do for news?

Tue, 24 Aug 2010 11:49:53 -0600

With all the talk about the 'massive' potential of Facebook Places to marketing and advertising, what is the significance of this new tool to the newspaper industry?

With just a little imagination, news providers could jump on the band wagon, especially as current hyperlocal trends already make news dissemination for a specific location easier. Starbucks for example, has launched a page in collaboration with some newspapers where customers can access local news. With Facebook Places, this is going to be possible at all venues. Imagine the unlimited possibilities if after checking into a place, a user can then access news items specific to that environment. Reaching out to consumers with location information is not a new idea and some newspaper houses are already working with similar application, Foursquare.

For more on this story, visit our sister publication, editorsweblog.org.

Financial Times creates new circulation measurement, collaborates with BurrellesLuce

Mon, 23 Aug 2010 12:39:26 -0600

The Financial Times has created a print and digital circulation metric that calculates the number of people who paid for accessing content on its paid website each day. The FT announced it believes it is the first media company to produce such circulation data, and said the statistics will be released quarterly in addition to ABC statistics on print circulation, MediaGuardian reported. The first set of results revealed for the period 31 May to 4 July shows that the average global circulation was 563,026, including newspaper sales, active FT.com and e-reader subscriptions.

The financial daily has also entered into a licensing deal with U.S media monitoring service provider BurrellesLuce to "increase its coverage and change the way FT articles are accessed," Editor & Publisher reported.

ABC: Many Irish newspapers see circulation declines

Sun, 22 Aug 2010 17:58:55 -0600

According to the latest Joint National Readership Survey (JNRS), 86 percent of Irish citizens are amongst the most avid newspaper readers in Europe; however, this did not help increase circulation numbers across the country.

All Irish newspapers, including daily and weekly titles listed in the latest "Island of Ireland Report" from the Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC), showed lower circulation figures, The Irish Times reported.

Encourage attention to long reads with technology

Fri, 20 Aug 2010 09:02:41 -0600

With Twitter and Facebook now indispensable features of journalism, it is quite difficult to envisage readers paying attention to articles of any substantial length. Mallary Tenore on PoynterOnline writes about how Nate Weiner (Read It Later), Marco Arment (Instapaper), Max Linsky and Aaron Lammer (Longform.org), and Mark Armstrong (@LongReads) have "found ways to use Web tools to renew attention to long-form journalism, increase its shelf life and make it easier for people to consume and share it."

Read It Later, is a tool "that enables people to save stories from their computer, smart phone or iPad, and makes them available for offline use." The tool saves an entire article page and makes it available even when offline, to reduce distractions, pages can be saved as text-only. This way, an article can be revisited at a more convenient time, without risking its disappearance on a busy news website.

For more on this story, visit our sister publication, editorsweblog.org.

Multitasking helps UK users spend almost half their time using technology

Thu, 19 Aug 2010 16:43:05 -0600

In the United Kingdom, the average person spends 45 percent of their waking hours watching television, listening to the radio, or using mobile phones, computers or other gadgets, media regulator Ofcom has found in its first study to track how long consumers spend with various media. Increasing use of both smartphones and social networking sites are partly responsible for the high number, Telegraph.co.uk reported today.

For example, two years ago 5.7 million people said they accessed the Internet on their mobile phone, while 13.5 million people said so this year, Ofcom's annual Communications Market Report found. The most popular mobile site was Facebook, at 45 percent; Google came in with 8 percent.

Image: Micht Licht, NotionsCapital.com's flickr photostream

To engage younger audiences, avoid stereotypes

Thu, 19 Aug 2010 08:33:26 -0600

After a year of research on what role young people have to play in the future of journalism, Christopher Sopher shared his discoveries and recommendations concerning younger consumers. "The question that matters," he says, "is this: What will replace the morning newspaper as the news habit of the first generation of Americans to grow up immersed in a digital culture?...Journalism needs to focus on young audiences and experiment with new approaches to engaging them."

Stereotypes have a huge role in the high failure rate of journalistic efforts aimed at youths. "Too many stereotypes about young people get worked into news experiments aimed at them," he writes. "While it's true that most young people feel more comfortable with technology and the Internet than their elders do, we don't possess some sherpa-like, innate ability to navigate poorly designed, poorly organized information." In conclusion, "recreating an old experience in a new format is an ineffective way to reach young audiences."

For more on this story, visit our sister publication, editorsweblog.org.

Newspaper circulation to grow in Latin America

Wed, 18 Aug 2010 14:48:23 -0600

Circulation of dailies in Latin America is expected to grow during the next five years, generating more than US$7.5 billion in revenues, according to the PricewaterhouseCoopers' Media & Entertainment Outlook for 2010-2014, the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas reported yesterday.

The growth will be lead by Brazil and Argentina, expected to see an increase of 2.2 percent and 1.4 percent, respectively. However, countries like Colombia and Venezuela are expected to see declines between 0.8 and 0.2 percent, La Nacion revealed.

Social discounting websites make readers excited about a good deal

Wed, 18 Aug 2010 12:32:53 -0600

The combination of a weak economy and the digital age makes selling newspapers increasingly difficult; however, innovative solutions can leverage the situation. Magazines and newspapers are using social discounting websites such as Groupon and Crowdity to rein in new subscriptions.

The principles of the discount sites are simple. Newspapers offer their subscriptions at a largely discounted price, but the deal only goes through if a minimum number of people subscribe. Last month when the Chicago Tribune used Groupon, they offered their one-year subscription for US$13, a 75% discount from the full price of $51. They required that 200 people subscribe to offer the deal. The final number of subscriptions was 7,494. Groupon, however, does take a 50% cut of the profit from the subscriptions.

For more on this story, visit our sister publication, editorsweblog.org.

The Times readership goes down by 27 percent

Tue, 17 Aug 2010 16:56:27 -0600

Combined traffic to The Times and The Sunday Times websites has fallen to 1.61 million visits in July, from 2.22 million in June and 2.79 million in May, according to comScore's latest findings, Media Week reported yesterday.

News International, which owns the newspapers, was expecting its readership to decline dramatically as it began charging for online content in July, New Media Age reminded.