April 29, 2008
Behind the Winning Entries: Austin360.com
Weekly, now through the end of summer, I’ll be posting one of the winning Digital Edge Award entries from the 2008 awards. All the entries are available in the report “Behind the Winning Entries,” but posting them here over time may make them more digestible and spark ideas in your newsroom as different issues come up in your communities. Here’s our eighth installment:
Best Local Guide or Entertainment Site (circulation group 75,000 to 250,000): Austin360.com
 Entry submitted by:Tim Lott
General Manager, Statesman.com
Austin American-Statesman
(512) 399-6611
To mark Austin360.com’s 10th year, staffers rolled out a variety of projects in 2007 designed to reinvigorate the site and encourage increased visitor participation. These included:
The A-List: Want to know what’s hip, hot and happening in Austin? Check out The A-List. Each week, we send photographers to selected events across the city, where they snap pictures and hand out cards promoting the site. The resulting galleries and blogs have been a huge hit, helping contribute to year-long, double-digit increases in page views.
It’s so popular, in fact, that event promoters now actively lobby in hopes of being picked. Your A-List: An expansion of The A-List, Your AList, gives readers control of the Web site. Each week, we let them tell us where to find the best of everything in Central Texas with our four new “best-of” polls. In the first month alone, more than 90,000 votes were cast. Winners get certificates and banners.
Soundcheck360: Austin is the “Live Music Capital of the World,” so it only makes sense that Austin360 would give the city’s musicians a place to showcase their work. That’s where SoundCheck360 comes in. In addition to listening to approximately 500 full-length tracks, visitors can also read about each featured band and view photos. The player also accepts videos.
Austin City Limits and South by Southwest Music Festivals: Austin360.com is the source for details on the city’s two annual music festivals, Austin City Limits and South by Southwest (SXSW). Multiple resources are deployed to ensure our coverage – before, during and after – is the most comprehensive on the Web. Our Austin Music Source blog features the latest reviews and updates, and our staff photographers and videographers capture the scenes – with a little help from The A-List crew.
Reader participation is also key – we actively solicit reader photos and feedback on our blogs. This includes our first-ever Austin Movie Awards. The reader poll wrapped up on the same day that the Oscars were presented. We’ve also launched multiple “hot or not”-style polls, including contests such as a search for the biggest “Star Wars” fan and hottest bachelor and bachelorette contest, coinciding with an Austinite’s appearance on “The Bachelor.” Reader blogs also get considerable play on the site.
We want readers to know they have an ownership stake in Austin360.com. It’s not our site; it’s theirs, and we’ve worked to show them that all year long.
Austin American-Statesman
April 28, 2008
AdAge Launches Newspaper Deathwatch
Maybe it’s the cloudy, rainy weather today in Virginia that’s got me bummed out. Or, maybe it’s AdAge.
The publication has started a series called “The Newspaper Deathwatch,” the first article of which appeared today.
April 24, 2008
Behind the Winning Entries: Lawrence.com
Weekly, now through the end of summer, I’ll be posting one of the winning Digital Edge Award entries from the 2008 awards. All the entries are available in the report “Behind the Winning Entries,” but posting them here over time may make them more digestible and spark ideas in your newsroom as different issues come up in your communities. Here’s our seventh installment:
Best Local Guide or Entertainment Site (circulation < 75,000): Lawrence.com
The World Co.
Entry submitted by:
Director, Mediaphormedia
The World Co.
(785) 843-1000
Lawrence.com is The World Company’s indie-souled, alternative publication in Lawrence, Kan., that serves as the converging spot for culture, events, and the arts for the local scene and the primary means to get the most out of your entertainment life in Lawrence.
The community calendar has a huge number of listings ranging from local bands to national touring acts to local artists' gallery shows. Want a reminder of an event? Simple: just sign up to get a text-message at a specified time before before the event or get an e-mail the day before.
Already out on the town? Check our mobile edition and access our entire calendar to find out what there is to do.
Lawrence.com has one of the most in-depth local music guides on the planet with a definitive library of local bands, musicians, venues and mp3s. Music lovers can subscribe via RSS or iCal to their favorite venue’s events or their favorite local band’s shows. Aficionados can search specific categories of events (alt rock, blues, experimental, whatever your tastes) or all events.
Dining out in Lawrence is made easy with a fully searchable restaurant guide that includes all Lawrence restaurants. Eachrestaurant page has in-depth information on price range,payment forms accepted, drink specials, locationdrink specials, location information, and even a Google map.Our restaurant database has an advanced search, so users canfind places that accept non-local checks, that serve vegetarianfood, or even places that have a heated smoking area.
If you’re looking for a movie, Lawrence.com provides listings for local and area theatres; reviews and links for trailers; and even reader reviews.
Lawrence.com delivers entertainment and cultural options to our audience wherever they like.
April 23, 2008
Some Newspaper Web Sites Reaching 20 Percent of Their Market
Scarborough releases Newspaper Audience Ratings Report
Just in case you missed it, Scarborough Research yesterday released their 2008 Newspaper Audience Ratings Report, which shows print newspaper, online and total audience ratings for 161 newspapers in the U.S.
Some of the newspapers’ Web sites in more tech-friendly/tech-heavy markets are reaching almost 20 percent of the market (or more!), which is great! It’s not as much as the print newspaper, of course, but it’s healthy and growing. Those include Austin American-Statesman (19 percent), The Washington Post (22 percent), The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (18 percent), The San Diego Union-Tribune (18 percent), and several others that had 16 or 17 percent.
April 22, 2008
NAA's FTC Comments
My keeping-up-with this blog has gone down a bit as we continue to work on a fairly large project about video on newspaper Web sites. However, I wanted to make sure everyone saw this, from NAA's Public Policy newsletter:
NAA Files Comments on FTC Behavioral Advertising Guidelines
In recently filed comments with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), NAA expressed concern over the Commission’s proposed behavioral marketing principles, arguing that the FTC has not demonstrated any real harm generated by the practice of online behavioral targeting. NAA’s comments centered around the fact that online newspapers play a unique role by providing news and information to local communities, generally at no cost, mostly due to the revenue generated by targeted advertising. NAA also raised concerns that efforts to provide users with targeted editorial content could be adversely impacted by restrictions on data collection. Though the proposed principles are guidelines and not regulations, NAA cautioned the FTC to avoid “any actions that would infringe upon the freedoms of speech and of the press and the selection of content that appears on newspaper Web sites.”
The FTC’s proposed principles call for online businesses to provide a clear and conspicuous notice to consumers that data is being collected, along with a means for consumers to opt-out of having such information collected. The principles also address issues such as data retention and the collection of sensitive personal information.
April 16, 2008
Behind the Winning Entries: Chicago Tribune Shopping Channel, Metromix Boutiques
Weekly, now through the end of summer, I’ll be posting one of the winning Digital Edge Award entries from the 2008 awards. All the entries are available in the report “Behind the Winning Entries,” but posting them here over time may make them more digestible and spark ideas in your newsroom as different issues come up in your communities. Here’s our sixth installment:
Best Local Shopping & Directory Strategy (circulation > 250,000):
ChicagoTribune.com Shopping Channel and Metromix Boutiques
Tribune Interactive
Entry submitted by:
Suzanne Sutherland
Marketing Analyst
Chicago Tribune/Tribune Interactive
(312) 222-3232
Previously relying on ShopLocal.com as its shopping resource, Chicago Tribune Interactive (CTI) decided to expand its presence and build a more robust shopping product. It took a two-pronged approach to shopping/ecommerce and created two new products in late 2006. The goals were:
1. Create an aggregated destination and improve access to all shopping/style related content & functionalities
2. Improve access to ShopLocal through improved messaging and contextual integration
3. Increase advertising opportunities and improve click thru rates through contextual placement
4. Leverage the Metromix user’s affinity for shopping and test a telesales group
The efforts paid off in the new Shopping Channel and Metromix Boutiques. The Shopping Channel showcases the fashion related content from the Chicago Tribune, the ability to search for local products and to shop the Sunday circulars through ShopLocal integration, shopping blogs, videos, coupons and more.
The Boutique Directory features paid local listings that are promoted and searchable via neighborhood and product category. Each boutique has its own microsite and features coupons, photos, store information and consumer reviews.
The shopping team researched the competitive landscape and determined the two key differentiators for CTI were its strong editorial newspaper content and its young urban MMX audience.
Both sites faced multiple challenges during production. First, both sites needed buy-in to combine the editorial content, shopping services and advertising in a more integrated fashion. Limited production resources also played a role as CTI had to build the shopping channel in Nov. 2006 and again with a network-wide redesign in July.
The boutique product is built on Planet Discover’s directory tool and it was the first of its kind, which brought numerous challenges with vendor tool education and product debugging. There was a significant learning curve for the telesales group selling boutiques. Ad, product and customer service teams needed to understand the product and the best ways to sell and service it.
Both products are highly adaptable both in concept and in functionality. Both sites were built on platforms that could be adopted throughout the Tribune Network of newspapers. The underlying concepts could be adopted in other markets.
The products are highly successful. Shopping now provides an engaging interactive shopping experience highlighting local personalities and editorial, shopping tools and partners. Its page views have increased 166 percent from January 2007 to October 2007. Its content offerings have expanded beyond fashion to include home style, health and beauty. An increased use of photo galleries and related story links within articles has resulted in higher page views and consumer engagement.
The channel has also been an advertising success. Retail/fashion advertisers who run within Shopping typically receive higher click-through rates than in their other positions within chicagotribune.com.
Most importantly, the editorial team has increased its participation with Shopping and is providing more content and feedback, which leads to an even better product presentation.
The Boutique Directory has over 55 local stores, a 35 percent increase in page views since January 2007 and over 60 percent penetration into the directory from its front page.
Both products offer the Chicago consumer important shopping content, shopping aides and they offer advertisers contextual and compelling ways reach the Chicago consumer. CTI will continue to expand on this success.
Capital Coverage from NEXPO, NAA, ASNE Conferences
The Capital Conference wrapped up this morning in Washington. If you couldn’t make it – or couldn’t decide between sessions – photos, the Capital Conference Blog, presentations and much more are all available now at www.naa.org/capitalconference.
April 15, 2008
Study: Consumers Combine Web, Print to Evaluate Purchases
The following is from this morning's press release from NAA and Google:
New consumer research conducted by Clark, Martire & Bartolomeo and commissioned by Google indicates that consumers frequently combine use of newspapers and the Internet to evaluate and make purchases, the Newspaper Association of America said today.
According to the study, among people who research products and services after seeing them advertised in newspapers, two-thirds (67 percent) use the Internet to find more information. Of that group, nearly 70 percent of consumers actually make a purchase following their additional research.
For more information, see the full press release (coming really soon) in the NAA.org press center.
AP to Introduce Smart Phone News Service
Newspapers will be able to sell ads into the program
I think this story got a bit buried yesterday, or hasn't gotten the attention it deserves.
The AP will be launching a new Mobile News Network that will send stories and more to smart phones. The ad-supported service will send local news from newspapers to smart phones, in addition to sending AP national and international news.
Individual newspapers will be able to sell advertising into the mobile service, splitting revenue 50/50. The newspaper involved in the initial test are: Advance Publications Inc., Hearst Corp., Lee Enterprises Inc., McClatchy Co., MediaNews Group Inc. and Rust Communications Inc. The full service should launch this summer.
Mobile is in is nascent phases in the U.S. newspaper industry, even though the infrastructure and culture differences in some areas of Europe and Southeast Asia have allowed mobile to really take off there. We hope programs like this will push mobile advances and revenue coming from newspaper sites, as our audience becomes more on-the-go and more interested in getting news the way they want, when they want, etc.
NAA will be looking at the issues surrounding mobile news and newspaper sites over the summer.
April 14, 2008
Nielsen Online Releases Top 30 News Sites List for March
11 Newspaper Company Sites on List
Newspaper Web sites attracted more than 66.4 million unique visitors on average (40.7 percent of all Internet users) in the first quarter of 2008, a record number that represents a 12.3 percent increase over the same period a year ago, according to a custom analysis provided by Nielsen Online for the Newspaper Association of America.
In addition, newspaper Web site visitors generated an average of 3.1 billion page views per month throughout the quarter, compared with slightly less than three billion during the same period last year. The first quarter unique visitor and page view figures are the highest for any quarter since NAA began tracking these numbers in 2004 and the largest increase since the third quarter of 2006. More information about these numbers is available through the NAA Press Center.
This data, also from Nielsen Online, shows the monthly traffic and other data for newspaper-based Web sites for March 2008:
-
65,685,195 – the monthly unique audience for newspaper sites, an increase of 10.2 percent (year over year)
-
39 percent – active reach, an increase of 5.7 percent (year over year)
-
3,111,859,189– total page views on newspaper sites, an increase of 4.2 percent (year over year)
-
47.38 – page views per person
-
8.3 – visits per person
The data below is from Nielsen Online on the top 30 sites in the “News” category based on March 2008 traffic. This data takes into account U.S. home and work Internet usage, and it shows both unique visitors to each brand or channel and sessions per person. For more information about the sourcing of this data, please visit www.netratings.com.
Nielsen Online is providing these data sets to the Newspaper Association of America on a monthly basis.
Top 30 Online Current Events & Global News Destinations, ranked by Sessions per Person
Brand or channel; sessions per person; unique audience (000)
drudgereport.com – 19.1; 3,474
Fox News Digital Network – 8.0; 11,364
AOL News – 7.8; 23,330
Daily Kos – 7.7; 979
Yahoo! News – 7.7; 32,556
CNN Digital Network – 7.4; 37,180
MSNBC Digital Network – 5.9; 36,610
ksl.com^ -- 5.6; 888
NYTimes.com – 5.5; 18,869
Gannett Newspapers and Newspaper Division – 5.4; 12,990
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette – 5.2; 835
Google News – 5.2; 11,537
Star Tribune – 5.1; 1,736
St. Louis Post Dispatch^ -- 5.1; 973
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel – 5.1; 1,061
Zwire^ -- 4.8; 1,029
Netscape – 4.7; 2,379
theatlantic.com – 4.3; 905
Breibart.com – 4.1; 2,600
GTGI Network – 4.1; 1,371
IB Web Sites – 4.1; 6,715
WorldNow – 4.0; 7,969
worldnetdaily.com – 4.0; 1,033
washingtonpost.com – 3.9; 8,929
Cox Newspapers – 3.8; 4,942
Media General Newspapers – 3.8; 1,833
Gannett Broadcasting – 3.7; 5,191
Tribune-Review Online – 3.7; 795
Hearst Newspapers Digital – 3.7; 7,656
Townhall.com^ -- 3.6; 1,158
^ Indicates Home and Work audience duplication projections did not meet minimum sample size standards. Combined home and work audience estimates for these sites may exhibit increased variability month-to-month as a result.
Update/note on the above numbers: Here's what Nielsen Online told us today: "Nielsen Online confirms Web page refreshes do not affect our sessions per person metric." This means that the auto-refresh features on sites like The Drudge Report does not increase the number of sessions, which is what we're tracking here.
Newspaper Web Sites Attract Record Audiences In First Quarter
Newspaper Web sites attracted more than 66.4 million unique visitors on average (40.7 percent of all Internet users) in the first quarter of 2008, a record number that represents a 12.3 percent increase over the same period a year ago, according to a custom analysis provided by Nielsen Online for the Newspaper Association of America.
April 13, 2008
Capital Conference Coverage: NAA, NEXPO and ASNE in DC
Rather than come here to the Digital Edge blog this week, check out the NAA Capital Conference blog for coverage of the events and sessions, photos, podcasts and more. I’m blogging there, as are more than a dozen of your peers. Go to community.naa.org/blogs/capital_conference.
April 09, 2008
Behind the Winning Entries: Lawrence Journal-World's Marketplace
Weekly, now through the end of summer, I’ll be posting one of the winning Digital Edge Award entries from the 2008 awards. All the entries are available in the report “Behind the Winning Entries,” but posting them here over time may make them more digestible and spark ideas in your newsroom as different issues come up in your communities. Here’s our fifth installment:
Best Local Shopping & Directory Strategy (circulation < 75,000): LJWorld.com Marketplace
The World Co.
 Entry submitted by:Daniel Cox
Director, Mediaphormedia
The World Co.
(785) 843-1000
The Lawrence Journal World’s Marketplace is a 180-degree shift in focus the newspaper and media industries have long had on advertising - that our products are delivery channels for select, singular content types, whether that is a classified, print or even online ad. The Marketplace feature set bridges the gap between having isolated advertiser content and having a complete ecosystem of any business’ content and information– fromvideos to photos to events and sales to coupons and ads. The ability for any business to have a fully functional multimedia presence can now easily be afforded.
By combining all of our advertising and business content into one place, we can offerbusinesses a single place to manage their sites, with photos, video, products, ads and coupons, as well as hours of operations, a description and maps.
Image from LJWorld.com/Marketplace.
Borrell: Newspaper-Owned Web Sites Dominate Local Ad Space
The following is part of a Newspaper Association of America press release issued this morning. The full release will be at www.naa.org/presscenter later today.
Newspaper-owned Web sites maintained a three-to-one lead over other local competitors in advertising market share last year, capturing 26.9 percent of the market, according to data from Borrell Associates’ fifth annual local online revenue survey. The study examined more than 3,000 local web operations.
“This survey provides further proof that local advertisers recognize newspaper Web sites as an indispensable way to reach their best customers,” said NAA President and CEO John F. Sturm. “The trusted name brand, quality content and desirable audience delivered by the medium’s digital properties are critical to advertisers in today’s crowded media landscape.”
According to the survey, newspaper-owned Web sites earned more than $2 billion in local online advertising revenue in 2007, a figure that surpasses all local online media companies combined and represents a 27 percent share of the total local online ad market. Local Yellow Pages and television Web sites were next with 9.5 percent of the market each, while radio stations captured 2.1 percent.
The survey indicates that video, the fastest growing segment of local online advertising, generated $363 million in 2007, with local online advertisers expected to spend $1.2 billion in 2008 (nearly a four-fold increase). Newspaper-owned Web sites have seized a foothold in this area as well, with a 26 percent share of all local online video advertising – more than any other local competitor.
April 08, 2008
Bloggers' Perspectives, Suggestions on How to Stay Alive
There were plenty of interesting reactions to The New York Times' story about the stress and alleged poor health of bloggers.
As one blogger pointed out, blogging is just the latest in a string of potentially-stressful careers and it's the relative new-ness of blogging for money that has drawn attention to the health issue. As Larry Dignan pointed out (mentioned in Romenesko’s blog late yesterday), many other careers are very stressful, such as being a corporate lawyer or (right now, at least) a mortgage broker.
Dignan wrote on his ZDNet blog, “Let’s put a little perspective on this blogging thing. You could be getting shot at in Iraq. You could be a single mom working three jobs to stay afloat (Happy Birthday mom). You could work in a coal mine. You could be in a life and death battle with Leukemia. You could be doing any one of thousands of high-stress jobs. Sure, the Web has a lot of stress but let’s get real: If you’re stressed out over 5,000 RSS feeds chances are good you’d be stressed by any profession you chose.”
One blogger from the United Kingdom took things in a more positive direction by suggesting ways bloggers can be healthier people. Some of the steps are easier said (or typed) than done – lose weight, lower your cholesterol, lower your blood pressure – but some of the suggestions are easier, such as take breaks and drink more water.
Not-so-coincidentally, it was one of the most-blogged-about articles from The New York Times in the day or so after it ran. Let’s hope all those bloggers hit the water cooler after they posted.
April 03, 2008
Behind the Winning Entries: Mobile Shopping Directory, The Palm Beach Post
Yesterday’s Online Publishing Update (which will be archived here later this week) included a brief about Amazon.com, which launched a text-based comparison shopping service. The service allows shoppers to search for an item on Amazon.com by sending the UPC code or ISBN number to Amazon.com in a text message. Amazon returns its results two at a time with pricing information, and shoppers can purchase the item through Amazon.com, also through text messaging.
With Amazon’s service launch, we thought this week’s Behind the Winning Entry should be from our Best Local Shopping & Directory Strategy category. The Palm Beach Post won this Digital Edge Award for their own text-based shopping program.
April 02, 2008
The Revolution will be Uploaded
Here’s a pop quiz:
You’re the editor or publisher of a mid-size metro daily newspaper. In one of the suburbs in your newspaper’s coverage area, a group of citizens decides to launch their own, online-only, independent newspaper.
|
|