Study Shows Opportunities in UGC for Newspaper Sites

By Beth Lawton

First Published: March 2008

INTRODUCTION
User-Generated Content Study

 Newspaper Association of America with Clark, Martire & Bartolomeo, Inc.
April, 2008

User-generated content, or UGC, has come into its own in the past few years, driven by the popularity of Facebook, News Corp.’s MySpace, YouTube and, for newspapers, a significant increase in community Web contributions.

With this in mind, the Newspaper Association of America last fall commissioned a study to understand how adult consumers perceive and participate in creating UGC, particularly on newspaper Web sites. The first phase of the survey consisted of a telephone survey in Atlanta, Denver, Milwaukee, Norfolk and Tampa. The second phase was an online survey of newspaper Web sites users in those same markets.

The study, by Clark, Martire & Bartolomeo, Inc. concluded awareness of some types of user-generated content remains relatively low, particularly where it exists on newspaper Web sites.

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However, survey respondents’ increasing interest in UGC strongly suggests there are real opportunities. Providing space for the small but growing number of Web users who do wish to post their content on newspaper Web sites and promoting such content for site visitors interested in such content may increase both site traffic and online revenue.  Earlier NAA case studies, including the Audience Building Initiatives series and the Online Community Cookbook, show significant traffic and revenue benefits for newspapers that encourage audience interaction.

Further, UGC can attract a desirable audience to a newspaper’s Web site. The first phase of this study concluded people familiar with UGC and those who consume UGC tend to be younger, better educated and more affluent than non consumers.

This NAA study, which focused on Internet users ages 18 and older, found heavy usage of user-generated content even among those ages 35 to 54. Responses to the telephone survey portion of the study revealed 44 percent of those ages 35 to 54 are frequent users of UGC. In the 18- to 34-year-old range, 35 percent of respondents are frequent UGC users.

Other research has concluded creators of UGC do skew toward the young and technologically savvy. Of online youth ages 12 to 17, 64 percent “engage in at least one type of content creation,” according to a December 2007 study from the Pew Internet & American Life Project. The study, “Teens and Social Media,” categorized UGC as sharing original content such as photos, artwork, photos, stories or videos; create or work on Web sites or blogs for others; create their own online journal or blog; maintain their own Web page; or remix content they find online. Newspaper companies would be wise to invest in and promote UGC to attract this younger Web audience.

Responses to NAA’s current study also show 42 percent of frequent UGC users across age ranges have a household income of $75,000 or more, and 50 percent of frequent UGC users are college graduates.

The study also gauged Phase 1 respondents’ interest in various UGC types and their interest in that content being offered by newspapers online. Respondents indicated a high level of interest in user-edited guides to local businesses and events. This is encouraging, as other research has shows this type of content is an increasingly important part of purchasing decisions for Web users. A Deloitte Consumer Product Group study in late 2007 found 62 percent of U.S. Internet users ages 16 and older read product reviews written by consumers. Almost all (99 percent) of those people find the reviews credible. Further, “eight in 10 respondents to the Deloitte study said online consumer reviews had affected their buying intentions,” eMarketer reported.

User comments on stories and reporter-written blogs were also highly rated as newspaper user-generated content areas, this study concluded. Phase 1 respondents said news and current events are the most widely-read topics among past-month blog readers. Sixty-six percent of respondents who used a blog or online journal site in the past 30 days read about news and current events; this was followed by traffic and weather at 43 percent, food at 42 percent, national politics or elections at 41 percent (note: this may high because of news surrounding this year’s presidential elections), and shopping or consumer tips and reviews at 40 percent.

For newspaper companies, blogs can be an effective way of communicating with the market. Many newspapers host breaking news blogs, weather and traffic blogs, blogs from columnists and blogs on a range of subjects from politics to entertainment. The New York Times alone features 50 blogs written by staff members and non-staff members. The Houston Chronicle features more than 70, written by staff and readers. The Knoxville News-Sentinel has partnered with BlogNetNews to aggregate blogs from the local community.

Data from Nielsen//NetRatings revealed the number of unique visitors to blog pages on the 10 most popular newspaper-based Web sites grew 210 percent during 2006, the most recent year for which this data is available.

The following chart, based on Phase 1 of this study, correlates interest in types of UGC content to potential impact on newspaper Web sites. The chart shows an interest in and potential positive impact from user-edited guides to local businesses, user-edited guides to local events, user comments on articles written by journalists and blogs or journals written by journalists.

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In the coming weeks, Clark, Martire & Bartolomeo, Inc. will analyze results from the online survey, which focused more deeply on opportunities for newspaper Web sites. Complete results from the study will be available in May.