Italian Newspaper Study
After we published our study of America's newspapers last week, it was picked up by many international blogs, and compared to newspapers in several countries, including Brazil, Denmark, and Italy.
We found the following Italian blog post, which reports the findings of a new study that examined the top 50 Italian newspapers, published August 7. An Italian journalist, Lele Dainesi, reported the findings, which orginally appeared on the Italian blog "Pandemia", on his own blog, Mash Ups in Italy. Apparently our study inspired an Italian blogger to pursue the sister study. Below is a graph that compares the results of the 25 most circulated papers in the US with the top 25 Italian papers. The chart also includes stats from papers ranking 75-100 on our list of America's 100 most circulated newspapers. The results are pretty interesting, and show that even the the least circulated papers are offering more Web tools on their sites that the most popular Italian papers:
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19 of the top 50 Italian papers required registration (compared to 23 of the top 100 American papers)
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12 of the top 50 Italian papers offered forums (compared to 64 of the top 100 American papers)
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Only 3 Italian papers offered podcasts, and only 8 offered blogs (compared to 31 and 80, respectively, here in the States).
You can view the report here (in Italian, PDF), or Lele's blog here.
A few Danish blogs, (Whyse and Problog) noted the importance of using blogs in today's age of Web 2.0, and regretfully describe how Danish newspapers have been slow to pick up on the blogging trend.
Based on these pickups, it seems that American newspapers might be setting the bar as far as newspaper sites around the world go. I think that we will be conducting some additional research to get some more details on this topic…stay tuned.
Newspaper Study on MediaShift
Mark Glaser of the PBS blog MediaShift gave our newspaper study a nice shoutout today. Here's an excerpt from the article he wrote about us:
"Though newspaper websites have been around for a decade, they’ve often been slow to innovate, and have been mainly used for “shovelware” — repurposing the same print stories online. But now, times are changing, and newspapers are perking up and realizing they’re going to have to do more online if they want to compete with the TV network and cable news sites, international newspaper sites, and aggregators such as Yahoo and Google."
I really like Mark's "shovelware" terminology. Despite newspapers' use of Web 2.0 and their innovations, much of the online content is similar to that of the print content. Thereis even one newspaper, the Arkansas Democrat Gazette, whose website is based on an electronic copy of the print newspaper.
The Use of the Internet by America’s Newspapers: Highlights
After finishing our study of America's top 100 newspapers and their use of the Web, I took a closer at the top 20 most circulated papers and tried to pick a few favorites. To be honest, this was a difficult task. Most newspaper websites are adequate and have similar formats. The differences lie in content, ease of navigation, and Web offerings.
For example, the website template used by the Philadelphia Enquirer was also used by the Miami Herald, the Kansas City Star, The San Jose Mercury News, and several others. There were a handful of other templates that several newspapers used, including that used by the NJ Star Ledger and the Michigan Grand Rapids Press. This template was quite common among the top 100 US papers.
To find the overall best Web experience, go to the New York Times website (#3 on our list of most-circulated papers). It's easy to navigate, and interactive features such as blogs and podcasts are extremely easy to find. They also have a wide selection of podcasts to choose from. However, that experience does not come without a price. Users have to register to read New York Times articles online. While basic registration is free, it does not let readers to view all the site's content. In order to gain access to everything the site has to offer, users have to sign up for Times Select for $50/year. Because of this, I couldn't pick the NYT website as my winner.
Maybe I'm biased because I live in Washington DC, but my vote for the best newspaper website goes to the Washington Post. They have informative content, a network of 
blogs, several podcasts, and another feature that I didn't notice on many other newspaper site. Next to every article there is a box labeled "Who's Blogging?", with Technorati links to the most popular bloggers who blogged about that particular Washington Post article. After the Post's debacle with comments earlier this year, this seems like a good way to encourage interactivity on the site without leaving the site open to comments that need to be moderated.
For the best blog network, check out the Boston Globe. They have the largest selection of blogs out of the top 100 newspapers hands down. They have a series of 28 reporter blogs, including several different news blogs, an individual blog for every area sports team, arts and entertainment, job openings, and others. In addition to Globe reporter blogs, they also offer a long list of other popular Boston-area blogs. Definitely worth a peek.
If forums/message boards is more your speed, you definitely need to visit the NJ Star Ledger's website. Kind of a dark horse at #17 on our list of 100 papers, this paper's overall website is nothing out of the ordinary. But, it has a massive series of forums that covers everything from high school sports to local news to, believe it or not, pets. I read some recent posts on a few of the forums, all of which seem popular, and the discussions got pretty heated…especially for high school sports.
For podcasts, check out the Arizona Republic. They have 21 podcasts listed on their site, which was the most that I noticed next to the New York Times.
I also found it noteworthy that the otherwise popular New York Daily News and New York Post (#6 and #7 on our list of 100 papers, respectively) seemed to be sub-par in their Web offerings. Neither site has any Web features to speak of, and their vertical, oversized picture strategy doesn't translate well to the Web. It was interesting to see how the same features that make these papers so popular in print are the same features that made them seem tabloid-y and cheesy on the Web.
The Use of the Internet by America’s Newspapers
Update: We've issued a call for help in conducting research in additional countries. Learn how you can help.
After the success of our recent study, The Internet's Role in Political Campaigns, we decided to perform a study on America's newspapers. It is widely known that America's newspapers are suffering from declining readership and
circulation. In many cases, this is occurring due to the availability of alternative forms of news and the changing habits of Americans. The Internet and the prevalence of free news sites, including newspaper sites and larger network sites, such as CNN, MSNBC, and Yahoo, are often credited with playing a major role in the problems experienced by the newspaper industry. In our most recent study, The Use of the Internet by America's Newspapers, we researched the websites of America's top 100 newspapers by circulation, and evaluated them based on their use of 14 different Web 2.0 features. These criteria were comprehensive, and included a wide variety of Web tools, such as reporter blogs, video and podcasts, message boards, and RSS feeds. We pursued this study in order to determine whether newspapers are trying to compete with the Internet or use it to expand readership over a different medium. The results of our research clearly showed that America's newspapers, unlike political candidates, are generally embracing the Internet and are using new and improving Web tools to their advantage. Here are some of our results:
- 80 of the nation's top 100 newspapers offered reporter blogs. On 63 of these blogs, readers could comment on posts written by reporters.
- 76 of the nation's top 100 newspapers offer RSS feeds on their websites. All of these feeds are partial feeds, and none included ads.
- Major Web tools, such as blogs and RSS penetrated both the most and least circulated newspapers.
- Video was the most common form of multimedia found on the websites, and was offered by 61 of the newspapers.
Based on these findings and others, it seems that today's newspapers are making a significant effort to reach Web-focused audiences with mediums that are relevant to today's virtual society. Take a look at our study and let us know what you think!