American Newspapers and the Internet: Threat or Opportunity?

Posted on July 19th, 2007
By Erin Teeling in Bivings, Newspaper Study, Research

We have recently completed the 2007 study of America's top 100 newspaper websites, entitled "American Newspapers and the Internet; Threat or Opportunity?". As the newspaper industry continues to suffer declines in readership and circulation, using the Internet to expand a newspaper's reach is becoming more and more important. While many industry experts fear that the Internet will spell the end of newspapers as we know them, our team here at TBG feels that the Internet presents newspapers with a unique opportunity to make up for lost circulation and readership. This study explores these concepts, as well as the difficulties facing newspapers regarding online advertising, shrinking staffs, and reaching out to consumers. Our research examined the websites of the top 100 newspapers in the United States, as determined by circulation (via the Audit Bureau of Circulations). We evaluated all of the websites on the presence of lack of various web features. Here are some of our key findings:

  • The use of RSS increased in 2007 by 21 percent since 2006. Now 96 of the papers we researched are using this technology. Within this group, 93 papers offer partial text feeds, while three offer full text RSS feeds. No papers have begun embedding advertisements in their RSS feeds.
  • Ninety-two percent of America’s top 100 papers now offer video on their websites. This represents a significant jump from 2006, where just 61 percent offered video. In this group, there is a mixture of local, Associated Press, and original content available on newspaper websites. Thirty-nine papers offer original content, 26 use AP video streams, 13 offer video content from local news outlets, four papers use all three technologies, and 10 papers use a mixture of two different types of video.
  • The number and quality of reporter blogs also improved in 2007. Now, 95 percent of papers offer at least one reporter blog. Ninety-three percent (88 papers) of these blogs allow comments. In 2006, 80 percent of the papers offered blogs, with 83 percent (67 papers) allowing comments.
  • One-third of newspapers now allow comments on articles. This represents a 14% improvement on 2006 statistics, when only 19 percent of papers allowed comments on articles.
  • The number of papers requiring registration increased by six percent from last year’s results. Twenty-nine percent of the nation’s top 100 papers now require users to register before gaining full access to their website. Of this group, three papers required a paid subscription, while 26 papers required free registration.

Overall, use of online features by newspapers improved across nearly all the categories when compared to last year's research, "The Use of the Internet by America's Newspapers."

Read the study in its entirety here and let us know what you think! Our research data is available in Excel format here.

graph1.gif

| Trackback URL |

Trackbacks/Pings

  1. Docuticker » American Newspapers and the Internet: Threat or Opportunity?
  2. links for 2007-07-25 « David Black
  3. Newspaper Homepages and Load Times » The Bivings Report
  4. Newspaper Homepages and Load Times : Wonderful Thoughts
  5. Livingston, il blog di Marco Mazzei - links for 2007-08-02
  6. MiniMediaGuy » Blog Archive » Comments, registration rise at paper websites
  7. FridayNet » Blog Archive » A study by Bivings on American Newspapers and the Internet
  8. 97 percent of newspapers now use RSS » Enterprise RSS Promotion
  9. Communications & Legal Studies Blog » Blog Archive » CMR brief: Bivings report on Internet & Newspapers
  10. Use of RSS has increased by 21 percent
  11. Library Stuff » Blog Archives » RSS and Newspapers
  12. Newspapers see the need for online features - Dig My City Forums
  13. American Newspapers and the Internet « Rockchucks - Incubation Innovator
  14. links for 2007-08-07 « tilt!
  15. WildBlueSkies » When newspapers go online
  16. The 541 diary » Blog Archive » (American) Newspapers and Web 2.0
  17. How to fight Google’s article commenting plan : Joe Think » Online News Blog Archive
  18. Open Those Gates Already - internalmi6.com - technology news xbox 360 ps3 software hardware unix windows
  19. » Open Those Gates Already
  20. Top 10 Best newspaper Websites » The Bivings Report
  21. Wednesday 8-15 links | News Videographer
  22. Article About How Newspapers Are Using New Web Technologies « Denver Blogging and New Media Group
  23. Weekend-reading : Testsite
  24. Newspaper Top List 2007 + Top 10 der amerikanischen Online-Zeitungen : fob marketing
  25. The Best Newspaper Websites: Response Roundup » The Bivings Report
  26. » Nieuwe personalisatie-features NYTimes maken geen indruk - 26-08-2007 - Content Cantina
  27. Washington Post Local Blog Directory » The Bivings Report
  28. The Guardian Wants a Tag Editor » The Bivings Report
  29. IHT Shares Thoughts on Visitor Comments » The Bivings Report

Comments

  1. Maurreen Skowran

    Thanks for the data. This should be very helpful.

  2. Lourdes

    These statistic for are for Americans in general…Were any statistics done as far as race or cultural background, such as Hispanic-Americans or African-Americans?

  3. Maria Rock

    How can I find the list of the 100 top newspapers they reviewed? THank you, Maria Rock

  4. Erin Teeling

    You can find the list on pg. 31 of the study, located in PDF format here: http://www.bivingsreport.com/w.....udy_22.pdf

  5. Maria Rock

    Just reread the piece and my question was answered…

  6. Daniel

    I couldn’t understand some parts of this article o.us poetry, but I guess I just need to check some more resources regarding this, because it sounds interesting.

  7. Nancy Arter

    This is an excellent article and study. And very compelling for all marketers who are trying to expand the reach with all of their clients. All industries need to take a look at how the newspaper industry has embraced Web 2.0. It’ll be interesting to track how this impacts their success as times goes on.

  8. A Week In The Life of A Redhead

    This is interesting, but I am wondering why some newspapers are allowing Craigslist and other community boards to take away their classified revenue. I think the need to raise stock value over putting money back into many newspapers has lead to the decline (in part). I can’t figure out why a newspaper doesn’t utilize its website for local classified listings.

about this blog

The Bivings Report (TBR) is a source of news, insight, research and analysis on the web-based communications industry. TBR content is posted, created and managed by internet strategists, media/communications analysts, web developers, designers and programmers, all of whom are employees of The Bivings Group.

Search Site

Archives

2008
Jan Feb Mar Apr May  
2007
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun
Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
2006
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun
Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
2005
Jan Feb Apr May Jun Jul
Aug Sep Nov Dec    
2004
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun
Jul Aug Sep Nov Dec  
2003
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun
Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
2002
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun
Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
2001
          Dec