The Digital Edge Blog

Clarification: The Digital Edge Blog is Open-Access

2008-10-01T13:54:47-05:00

Someone pointed out to me today (thanks, Peter) that I should make sure you all know that the Digital Edge blog is still an open-access blog.

Yes, parts of the NAA Community are behind the members-only wall, but the Digital Edge blog and all the new blogs we've launched through the NAA Community are accessible to anyone!

All the blogs are available at community.naa.org/blogs.

Here's the Digital Edge Blog and its new RSS feed.

Hope you join us there!

Moving Day! Digital Edge Blog Moves to NAA Community

2008-09-25T09:48:00-05:00

By now (unless you’re reading this blog through an RSS-reader only), you’ve probably noticed the new NAA Community announcements at the top of this blog.

Yes, the Digital Edge Blog is moving to a bigger, better, nicer home.

From here on, the blog will be integrated into the NAA Community. (The RSS feed is here – you will have to make this change to continue to receive blog entries in your RSS reader.)

The NAA Community includes secure file-sharing among NAA members, upgraded e-forums and photo galleries. This will be the best place online for NAA members to talk to each other and to NAA staffers, share best practices, stay on top of industry issues and news and more.

The Digital Edge Blog won’t be the only blog there – the NAA Foundation, PRESSTIME magazine and other blogs still in the planning phases will be there, too.

Also, please note that we have a new Online Publishing Update forum thread! Every month, we’ll start a new conversation with you about the OPU, and I’m excited to see what you think is the most interesting, controversial or amusing parts the e-newsletter.

Head over to the NAA Community to see more!

Questions? Let me know at beth.lawton@naa.org – or you can send me a private message through the new NAA Community!

Thanks for reading,

Beth Lawton

Manager, Digital Media

Newspaper Association of America

P.S. By the way, I’ve been posting blog entries (the same ones as are here) on the new NAA Community for about a month. But you’ll still be able to get to older posts from here.

Congratulations to Emmy Winners: Free Press and Mercury News

2008-09-23T11:06:00-05:00

Just a quick congratulations to the Detroit Free Press and the San Jose Mercury News staffers who won News & Documentary Awards (part of the Emmy Awards). We love to see our newspapers embrace online video and get positive national recognition for their efforts.

The Free Press won two awards for videos on the newspaper’s Web site. "40 Years of Respect" was about the 40th anniversary of the song "Respect," by Aretha Franklin, and "Pit Bulls: Companions or Killers?" looked at the benefits and drawbacks to owning a pit bull.

The San Jose Mercury News won an award for “Uprooted,” a story about mobile home residents in Sunnyvale, Calif., who were displaced.

August Sessions Per User: Journal Sentinel in Top 10

2008-09-22T10:53:00-05:00

The Drudge Report kept its No. 1 spot in August in monthly sessions per user among Nielsen Online’s Top 30 Current Events & Global News Destinations, slipping again from 20.5 sessions per user in July to 19.4. Daily Kos jumped up several spots to No. 2 with 11.2 sessions per user.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel moved into the top 10 in August, with 6.1 sessions per user, up a full session per user from July. Thirteen newspaper Web sites are now on the top 30 list from Nielsen, including newcomers Politico and the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. MediaNews Group returned to the list after a brief absence.

Notable newspaper moves this month:

Cox Newspapers moved from 30^th place to 20^th place, increasing their sessions per person from 3.6 to 4.2.
Hearst Newspapers moved from 19^th place to 12^th place, increasing their sessions per person from 4.3 to 4.9.
The Star Tribune and Media General Newspapers dropped a few places, and The Buffalo (N.Y.) News and the Salt Lake Deseret Morning News both exited the list.

Nielsen Online provides these numbers to the Newspaper Association of America on a monthly basis, showing traffic and sessions per person* to the top 30 sites in the “News” category based on July 2008 numbers. It 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.

* Note on the following numbers: Auto-refresh features on Web sites (i.e. when a Web site page reloads automatically) does not increase the number of sessions. For more information about the metrics, go to www.netratings.com.

^ 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.

Brand or Channel	Sessions Per Person	Unique Audience (000)
1. drudgereport.com	19.4	3,661
2. Daily Kos	11.2	1,189
3. Fox News Digital Network	8.4	13,902
4. CNN Digital Network	8.3	38,821
5. AOL News	8.1	23,114
6. Yahoo! News	7.4	40,787
7. MSNBC Digital Network	6.3	52,212
8. Google News	6.1	12,137
9. Milwaukee Journal Sentinel	5.4	1,295
10. Breitbart.com	5.2	2,588
11. Zwire^	5.0	1,018
12. Hearst Newspapers Digital	4.9	8,428
13. TWC News Websites^	4.7	848
14. Real Clear Politics	4.7	1,478
15. Gannett Newspapers and Newspaper Division	4.6	14,454
16. WorldNow	4.6	8,030
17. Media General Newspapers	4.5	1,762
18. NYTimes.com	4.5	19,862
19. Star Tribune	4.4	2,578
20. Cox Newspapers	4.2	4,935
21. Netscape^	4.1	1,331
22. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette	4.1	1,188
23. Politico	4.1	3,630
24. USATODAY.com	4.0	10,403
25. Tribune-Review Online^	4.0	639
26. MediaNews Group Newspapers	3.9	7,485
27. National Review	3.7	1,016
28. St. Louis Post Dispatch^	3.7	1,192
29. IB Websites	3.6	5,753
30. Belo Television	3.6	3,601

Digital Resarch for Online Sales Reps

2008-09-19T12:15:32-05:00

In just about every edition of the Online Publishing Update, I’ve been including interesting research nuggets about the online audience that might be useful for online ad sales reps to keep in their arsenal. Here’s a roundup of the most interesting ones from the past few months:

Research for Sales Reps

Media multitasking is less common than you think: Although young people are more likely than older adults to media multitask, less than half the people read the newspaper or surf the Web simultaneously do other things. This research shows that Web site visitors and newspaper print readers are engaged with the product. According to Mediamark Research & Intelligence, Among all adults, 55 percent of those who read a print newspaper at home do so "without involvement of other media." When surfing the Web at home, 53.8 percent of adults do not media multitask. (More information from MediaWeek)

Newspaper site visitors are more likely to act on ads than other local site users:Consumers generally trust local advertising on newspaper, magazine and TV Web sites, according to a new survey from the Online Publishers Association. More than 40 percent of local online media users said they are likely to take action after seeing a local ad on one of those sites. “Newspaper [Web sites] rank first with 46 percent of consumers taking action – including making a purchase, going to a store, conducting research – after viewing a local ad,” according to the Online Publishers Association. (More information from OPA)

Ads on branded content sites more effective than ads on portal sites: According to the Online Publishers Association, “major content sites, by dint of the familiarity and distinct identity they have with users, can improve brand favorability and purchase intent more than other sites,” PaidContent.org reported. OPA President Pam Horan said, “It's an absolute fact with online advertising: environment matters. In nearly every category measured, ad effectiveness scores on branded content sites were numerically higher than on the Web in general, on portals or on ad networks. Whether it's the trust they engender or the audiences they attract, branded content sites deliver better advertising results.” (More information from the Online Publishers Association)

Web coupon usage is increasing: Although the Sunday newspaper still reigns supreme for grocery coupons (27 percent of Americans clip grocery coupons each week), Internet coupons are quickly gaining popularity. Internet Retailer reported 11 percent of consumers got coupons from the Web last year, up from 8 percent in 2006, according to data from Scarborough Research. comScore reported visits to coupon sites increased 21 percent in the past year. (More information from Internet Retailer)

“Integrators” and “net-newsers” rely on newspaper Web sites: Although newspaper print readership is generally down, the number of people going online for news at least a few times each week is still increasingly. The majority of Americans say they “check in” on the news from time to time during the day – which means they are repeat newspaper Web site visitors. There are four segments in today’s news audience: integrators, net-newsers, traditionalists and disengaged.

Integrators are 23 percent of respondents to a Pew survey this summer. Integrators “who get the news from both traditional sources and the Internet, are a more engaged, sophisticated and demographically sought-after audience segment than those who mostly rely on traditional news sources.” Integrators spend the most time with news on a typical day of the four segments.

Net-newsers are 13 percent of respondents with a median age 35 (youngest segment). “Net-newsers not only rely primarily on the internet for news, they are leading the way in using new web features and other technologies.” (More information from Pew)

High gas prices are encouraging people to shop online: The high cost of gas is encouraging more people to shop online. At many retailers where brick-and-mortar store sales are slow, online sales are up. (More information from The New York Times)

The Web is more interesting to pre-teens than TV: The Internet is winning out over television for children ages 10 to 14, according to a study recently released by DoubleClick Performics. “The study found that 83 percent of Internet users in that age bracket spent an hour or more online a day, but only 68 percent devoted that much time to television,” according to The New York Times. “The study found that the children often did research online before making a purchase -- or bugging their parents to make one.” (More information from The New York Times)

Also, this is a great blog entry from the Online Journalism Blog’s Paul Bradshaw. The full blog entry has a lot more information and details you can use, and the comments on the blog entry have additional advice. This isn’t research-based, but it’s interesting and useful anyway:

10 Ways Ad Sales People Can Save Newspapers
The Online Journalism Blog published some frank advice for newspaper ad sales people this week. The blog's “10 Ways Ad Sales People Can Save Newspapers” entry focused on digital media and included the following (see the blog for details on all 10 items):

1. Stop treating web ads as second class.
2. Stop selling adverts on static pages.
3. Sell advertising against search terms.
4. Give ad sales people access to the Internet.
5. Enable the long tail of small businesses to advertise without you doing it for them.
6. Think beyond the banner: get creative about online advertising.
7. Think about vouchers.
8. Sell advertising aimed at the non-local market.
9. Sell video ads as well as the production of video content.
10. Work in networks.
Bonus: Don't take digital growth for granted.

NAA’s Moving to Mobile
"Moving to Mobile" is a growth and development guide from the Newspaper Association of America that covers the many aspects of mobile for newspapers. Articles include the following and more:

Mobile Advertising: The Next Big Thing Hasn't Arrived (But It's On Its Way)

SMS Programs: Potential in 160 Characters or Less

How Newspapers Can Cell Themselves to Youth

Go to www.naa.org/mobile.

Note: We have a Webinar on mobile advertising coming up Sept. 30. Click here to register and get more information!

NAA’s Zooming In on Online Video
While still a small percentage of total and local online advertising, online video represents an enormous opportunity for newspapers to grow revenue and audience. “Zooming In on Online Video: A Development & Growth Guide for Newspaper Web Sites” is intended to help newspapers of any size develop profitable video applications.

Go to www.naa.org/onlinevideo.

NAA’s Local Search Opportunities for Newspapers (Plus Webinar on Monday!)
Newspapers are finding new and varied ways of tapping into the search space. Some are blending news and targeted advertising content with more sophisticated search tools. Learn more about newspaper's efforts at local search with case studies from Boston.com, Ottoway Newspapers, GateHouse Media and others.

Go to www.naa.org/localsearch.

And don’t forget about this:

Local Search: Strategies for Audience and Revenue Growth Webinar
After much experimentation, newspapers are finding ways to serve smaller advertisers online, some through enhanced local search capabilities, some through SEO services and others through interactive business directories. This Webinar will explore two successful models for capturing non-traditional advertisers, one from a small-market newspaper and one from a larger market organization.

This Webinar is Monday at 2 p.m. (ET). Register here!

Local Search: What Your Customers are Looking For

2008-09-17T14:12:49-05:00

At a jam-packed session at the Online News Association Conference this weekend, the moderator of a panel asked a series of questions about the audience's usage of online ads. Here's what happened:

Moderator: Who has intentionally clicked on a display ad online in the past month?

Audience: ... A few hands go up.

Moderator: Who has responded to an e-mail ad or marketing message in the past month?

Audience: ... About 10 hands go up.

Moderator: Who has gone directly to an online retailer's site in the past month?

Audience: ... A few more hands go up.

Moderator: Who has searched for a product or service online in the past month?

Audience: ... Just about everyone raised their hand.

This just illustrates the obvious: We're all searching for "stuff". Restaurants, books, mechanics, new windows -- the list could go on forever.

In any given local market, no media outlet has more information about businesses, sales, and local products than the newspaper. Going forward, one of the smartest things a newspaper can do is harness currently available digital media technology and the newspaper's knowledge base to get the attention of people who are going online to search for stuff.

With that in mind, we present this:

Local Search: Strategies for Audience and Revenue Growth
Monday, September 22 at 2 p.m. ET (Rescheduled from August)

After much experimentation, newspapers are finding ways to serve smaller advertisers online, some through enhanced local search capabilities, some through SEO services and others through interactive business directories. This Webinar will explore two successful models for capturing non-traditional advertisers, one from a small-market newspaper and one from a larger market organization. For background on local search and directory strategies, download NAA's new report Local Search: Strategies for Audience and Revenue Growth.

Speakers:
• Sarah Wilhelm, Vice President of Sales & Business Development, Mediaphormedia,( the software division of The World Company in Lawrence, Kan.)
• Mark Robertson, Search Evangelist, Freedom Interactive

Register here!

For more information on local search, check out NAA's recently released report"Local Search: Strategies for Audience and Revenue Growth" at www.naa.org/localsearch.

ACAP: Why You Should Care

2008-09-12T23:14:00-05:00

The following came from a session at the 2008 Online News Association Conference about ACAP (the Automated Content Access Protocol):

According to ACAP Program Director Mark Bide, copyright laws in place now worldwide have largely worked and are still effective. But in the digital age, we largely lack the necessary tools to make copyright laws really work on the Web. In the United States, our main copyright enforcement tool is litigation, which is – let’s face it – really expensive and time consuming. (Or a headache for all involved; reference the AP vs. Drudge Retort fiasco from earlier this year.)

ACAP is essentially a few lines of code on Web pages. The idea behind ACAP is that publishers of all types of media would be able to pre-emptively deal with copyright issues by telling search engines what (and when) to crawl content.

Frankly, very few people read the “terms & conditions” on Web sites, anyway. ACAP, Bide said, will ultimately make all publishers more confident about putting their content online, and it will facilitate new business models while preserving copyrights. “This is an Internet-scale solution to an Internet-scale problem,” Bide said. ACAP is extensible, flexible and able to scale to both current and future online publishing business models.

ACAP tries to facilitate copyright violation prevention as opposed to post-violation enforcement. It goes far beyond robots.txt, but “is not anti-search engine or anti-search,” Bide said. The permissions ACAP would include directions to search engines on crawling, following, indexing, preserving, presenting and other – plus subsets of all those "usage purposes."

ACAP is an initiative of the World Association of Newspapers, the International Publishers Association and the European Publishers Council. Although ACAP originated in Europe, current ACAP members include The Associated Press, the American Publishers Association, Reuters and others in the United States.

Two things to note here: None of the “Big Three” search engines – Microsoft Live Search, Yahoo and Google – has agreed to implement ACAP for a wide range of reasons. Also, NAA is a supporter of ACAP.

The next steps for the organizations behind ACAP are to expand it, actively encourage publishers to implement ACAP on their Web sites (implementing it will not affect how search engines crawl your sites yet).

Could ACAP, if implemented by more major U.S. publishers and honored by the “Big Three” search engines, have prevented the Tribune-Google-Bloomberg controversy from this past weekend? Maybe. It is also designed to perhaps solve the issues that may come up when an online publisher takes down an article but it continues to appear in search engines thanks to caching, which can be a liability issue. But, whether it really takes hold with publishers and major search engines remains to be seen.

Either way, ACAP is still quite controversial. Several digital media types are, perhaps rightfully, concerned that ACAP could really decrease traffic to Web sites from search engines. (ACAP contests this has not happened in European test markets, but since the Big Three are not participating, who’s really to say?)

For more information about ACAP, go to www.the-acap.org.

ONA 2008: Newsroom Convergence Tips

2008-09-12T09:02:00-05:00

Yesterday, I attended “Like Minds,” a pre-Online News Association Conference workshop that focused on convergence in newspaper newsrooms (at least, my section of the workshop did).

The ideas-sharing session of the workshop included these ideas for getting over some of the bumps in converging your newspaper’s newsroom.

Interns/Rotations: Education Week has implemented two-month “rotations,” where each newsroom staffer is pulled off their beat and immersed in the publication’s Web operations. Learning how the Web site works first hand is helping reporters think about the Web before start reporting their stories. The Tacoma News Tribune is letting reporters apply for mini-internships with the Web department where the reporter completes a Web-based project in addition to learning the ropes.

Volunteers: Don’t underestimate the power of the first few people to try something new. Many newspapers have reported to NAA that when a few newsroom staffers try something new and tell their co-workers how fun it was, those co-workers are much more likely to want to give that new thing a shot.

The Metrics Trick: Show reporters their Web traffic numbers. The Commercial Appeal tells everyone how many page views the top stories online received, and sometimes reporters get rewards for having the highest number of page views. For many newspapers, the Web page views can be as high as or higher than the newspaper’s circulation, and giving print reporters those numbers can help them understand the importance of the Web.

Passions: Some newspapers have been taking another look at each reporters passions and strengths. If a reporter loves telling stories, the newspaper can give them digital media tools to do their job better, such as encouraging video. If a reporter loves breaking news, the newspaper can make them a mojo (mobile journalist) or put them on the breaking news desk. Investigative reporters may be especially interested in playing with databases.

Movement: One newspaper from Vancouver, B.C., said it has brought its senior editors out of their offices and moved them into the newsroom. In addition, all those senior editors sit within feet of each other, creating an environment friendly to spur-of-the-moment collaboration and multimedia thinking. Reporters now bring their ideas to a group of people instead of to just their individual boss, which ultimately results in stronger stories.

I’ll blog more about the conference this weekend!

ONA Conference: Tell Me What to Cover

2008-09-09T10:53:00-05:00

Thursday, Friday and Saturday, I’ll be at the Online News Association Conference here in Washington. I will attend a few sessions on Saturday for Presstime magazine (see below), but my entire day on Friday is open for me to go to whatever sessions you think I should attend.

Here are your choices. Please e-mail me directly at beth.lawton@naa.org or post a comment below to let me know what you would like me to report back on. More information about all Friday sessions is here.

Friday morning:
A. Las Vegas Sun Site Redesign
B. ACAP: Should Publishers Adopt a New Standard?

Friday afternoon 1
A. MSNBC.com Bridge Tracker
B. The Next New Metrics
C. Merging Newsrooms, Managing Drama

Friday afternoon 2:
A. The New York Times Election Guide
B. Optimize and Monetize
C. Content Distribution in Emerging Markets
D. Using the Web to Generate Story Ideas

Friday afternoon 3:
A. National Geographic Web Design
B. Hello, Semantic Web!
C. Beyond Green
D. Mobilize Your Audience!

Saturday, I’m definitely attending “10 Tech Trends You’ve Never Heard Of,” “Going Mobile” and the Superpanel. Also, I’ll attend the keynote speech and general session that morning. (More information about the Saturday sessions is here.)

Thursday, I’ll be attending “Like Minds,” an afternoon workshop and idea-sharing session tailored for people who work in newspapers, magazines, broadcast or standalone Web sites. (I’ll be in the newspapers section.)

Leuders: Newspapers Matter

2008-09-08T15:56:09-05:00

“Conservatives say newspapers are hurting because readers are fed up with how liberal they are. Liberals say newspapers are hurting because they've become shills for conservatives and tools of corporations. … Here's what I say: Newspapers are hurting because the people who should be relying on them don't, and because those who do rely on them have decided they ought to be able to do so for free.”

The quote above came from a speech The Isthmus Editor Bill Leuders gave to the Madison, Wis. Rotary Club. The speech was titled “Why Newspapers Matter.”

With that title, I imagine right now some readers are thinking, “Yeah, yeah, we know newspapers matter.”

But Leuders makes some really good points that reporters and editors in the midst of buyouts, layoffs or other cutbacks should hear. Chief among them: Newspapers matter a lot.

First, some background: Leuders still describes himself as a reporter – more specifically as a “newspaper reporter” – despite his “editor” title. And the Isthmus, an alternative news weekly in Madison, has not been spared from staff cuts and the other painful realities of the newspaper industry.

The oft-discussed decline of the newspaper industry is not the Internet’s fault, Leuders said, and the effect of the Web on traditional media is not what concerns him. What concerns him is that newspapers are seriously undervalued by those who should (or do, but don’t realize it) depend on the vital work of newspaper reporters – regular people who have an interest in keeping up on the world around them, from their kid’s school system to the national and international stages. Toward the end of his speech, Leuders said he’s quite discouraged by those who seem “cheerfully ignorant.”

“In fact, newspapers are the source of nearly all of the reporting being done on those three-minute news updates played on local radio stations. Newspapers are the source of nearly all of the commentaries posted by bloggers; they almost never do the hard work of picking up a phone and nailing down a story. They pick up a newspaper,” Leuders said. (Personal note: I witnessed this while interning at a TV station in an earlier life.)

He continued, “My concern is that newspapers seem to be losing traction at precisely the time when they should be gaining it. I worry that people are not replacing daily newspaper consumption with other quality information.”

Leuders then gave – and solidly refuted – five common reasons why people don’t seem to value newspapers anymore (he focuses on newspapers in the Madison area for No. 5). Here is the Cliff’s Notes version:

Reason: “I don’t have time.” Leuders: “That’s ridiculous. Of course you have time. You just spend the time you have doing other things.”

Reason: “It’s just too depressing.” Leuders: “There are all kinds of stories in the paper -- good news and bad, stories about people and trends and ideas and business and technology and sports.”

Reason: “It’s all fluff.” Leuders: “There are all kinds of stories in each and every issue. If you don’t like the softer stuff, don’t read it. And for Pete’s sake, make up your mind: Do you not read papers because there’s too much bad news, or not enough?”

Reason: “You can’t trust anything you read in the paper.” Leuders: “You can trust almost everything you read in the newspaper. You know why? Because newspaper reporters work very hard to be accurate, and they get an amazing number of things right. Not just facts, names and figures, but nuance and context. We’re the only profession I know of that runs corrections when it makes mistakes.”

Reason: “Isthmus is the only good read in town.” Leuders: “The truth is that Madison has an unusually large number of talented reporters, on staff and freelance, because it’s considered a good place to live. There are dozens of applicants for every local journalism job. If you can make it here, you might not be able to make it anywhere. But you probably don’t suck. And neither does my competition.”

Go read Leuders' entire speech here.

In Focus: The Honolulu Advertiser

2008-09-04T13:27:00-05:00

We’ve added to our Zooming In on Online Video series this week with a short case study on the Honolulu Advertiser. Hawaii, as many people know, is a beautiful place and the newspaper had an understandable desire to cover the news with video as much as with words and pictures.

Gannett’s corporate training (see more about training programs here) really helped the newspaper get going on video last year. The newspaper did well marketing its Web site as a video destination.

Unfortunately, an ongoing labor dispute has put all of that on hold – a problem any newspaper with a union should learn from and work to fix.

Learn more in the latest addition to NAA’s Zooming In on Online Video: A Development & Growth Guide for Newspaper Web Sites.

PRESSTIME: New Tools, J-School and Telling the Story

2008-09-02T14:46:00-05:00

In this month’s issue of PRESSTIME:

New Tools for a New Job
As the Internet continues to evolve, so have the ways newspapers spread content on the Web. In the past, articles, videos, photos and blogs were bound to the newspaper’s main Web site. That is no longer the case, and many newspapers are using new digital tools that help get content out to people. Social networking software, open APIs, widgets and more are included in this new digital media toolkit by LaShell Stratton.

Mind the Gap
Journalism schools still need to instill the basics of reporting and writing and an understanding of ethics and legal issues—but at the same time teach multimedia and other skills that will help students land their first jobs. They need to coach students on new methods of reporting even as faculties and curricula are slow to change, and professors may not have used these skills in their careers as working journalists. And they need to do this at a time when the industry is confused about its own future and not necessarily able to offer much guidance. This month’s cover story by Mary Lynn Jones looks at the gap between the classroom and the newsroom, and explores how journalism schools are retooling to graduate students who are ready to enter a rapidly evolving professional media world.

Chairman’s View: Telling Our Story
“News companies nowadays have become hybrids: integrated multimedia operations that are increasingly at ease operating across many platforms in a continuous, 24/7 news cycle,” writes NAA Chairman Gary B. Pruitt in his column this month. “Only a decade ago, many of us delivered only a once-a-day, print product; today’s effort includes instant e-mail news alerts, video stories, specialty publications, databases of public information and sophisticated computer graphic presentations. Today’s news company is as at home on iPhones as on newsracks. Perhaps the most remarkable (and least recognized) fact is this: These integrated news operations command a growing audience.”

Times-Picayune Adjusts for Hurricane; Lessons from Katrina Heeded

2008-09-02T11:43:00-05:00

At least a few newspapers made adjustments to their print runs for Hurricane Gustav, but the real adjustments were online.

Dan Shea, managing editor/news at the Times-Picayune, told Editor & Publisher that 120 newspaper staffers were at the newspaper’s offices Sunday evening, and more than half stayed long past the (earlier-than-normal) print deadline to blog and cover the story for the Web. The newspaper’s Web site has free PDF versions of the print edition online. The Times-Picayune reported record traffic to the newspaper’s Web site (3 million page views Sunday).

And, taking lessons from Katrina, the newspaper created myriad easy ways to readers to contribute and help each other with information, practical advice and updates through the site NOLA.com. The site also hosted PDF versions of the daily newspaper and created a hurricane desktop application for quick updates. And, the newspaper purchased more generators after Katrina to keep the main office open for Web publishing – an investment that paid off, since the newspaper’s building has been without power since early Monday.

Clearly, the newspaper recognized the importance of the Web’s role in getting information out to people and prepared accordingly before Hurricane Gustav was even a tropical depression. Their efforts are worth checking out today and provide lessons for all newspapers.

At least two other Louisiana newspapers -- the Daily Comet in Thibodaux and the Courier in Houma -- faced a similar situation as the Times-Picayune: No power, a major storm and readers in need of local information. These newspapers also stepped up and kept their Web operations going strong, even when printing and delivering a paper proved impossible.

On the print side, The Times-Picayune published Sunday’s paper on Saturday morning for distribution Saturday afternoon as many residents were leaving town ahead of the hurricane. The newspaper held Monday’s edition in a warehouse until its delivery people returned, Editor & Publisher reported.

Non-newspaper efforts included NPR’s launch of an unbranded Gustav Information Center on the social networking platform Ning. Learn more about it here. And CNN’s Victor Hernandez talked to Poynter about how newer technologies are making disaster coverage faster and more accurate (read it here).

Online Ideas Gallery: Alphabet City

2008-08-27T15:57:00-05:00

We just put yet another new idea into the Online Ideas Gallery, NAA’s database of best practices and innovative ideas.

Alphabet City, a quiz on the St. Louis Post-Dispatch’s Web site, is a local landmark-recognition game spearheaded by the photo department. Although the Post-Dispatch didn’t incorporate advertising into their quiz, other newspapers could easily make this a revenue-generating idea. Lynden Steele, a photo editor at the newspaper who worked on the project, said most letters came from local businesses.

Read about it here in the Online Ideas Gallery!

(Thanks to Steve Yelvington for the pointer and Lynden Steele for giving us information about the project.)

Idea Log: Newspapers Ramp Up Digital Media for Convention

2008-08-26T16:46:00-05:00

Newspapers – especially the Denver newspapers and a few national outlets known for politics – are putting out some fabulous digital media-based coverage of this week’s Democratic National Convention. Here’s a short round-up! Please add to this list by telling us what your newspaper is doing in the comments section below!

Denver Post: The Denver Post is feeding a stream of Twitter-like updates from reporters covering the convention, and readers can sign up to get the messages on their mobile phones. Streams range from news updates (Obama Heading to Montana) to celeb sightings (Steven Spielberg just walked into Peet's Coffee on the 16th St Mall…). Also, see the Denver Post’s prominent convention cover on the Web site with links to video, breaking news updates and reader-participation opportunities.

Rocky Mountain News: The Rocky Mountain News has a Twitter feed box on the main page of the site! Also see the newspaper’s video blogs from local hangouts (including the humorous Sam-ulcast), a political trivia quiz, a Google Maps traffic updates section that focuses a lot on the convention area and a lot more.

The Washington Post: The newspaper’s Web site goes live again with Post Politics TV – this time from Denver. Last year, the newspaper lauched Post Politics TV with primary election coverage from the washingtonpost.com newsroom in Arlington, Va. This time, Washington Post and Newsweek stffers are using mobile devices and a cell phone app from Comet Technologies to live stream from the floor. Also new: The Post Politics TV page has an interactive chat module, allowing viewers to interact with reporters on the floor. (Learn about the newspaper’s initial efforts with live Web streaming here.)

In addition, washingtonpost.com has a video going behind the scenes of their online news operation at the convention center in Denver. It's not as glamorous there as you might think.

C-SPAN: The government channel breaks free from the walls of Congress – and its own site. C-SPAN’s DNC site has prominent links to its Qik streaming video, its YouTube page and blog entries from newspapers all over the country. C-SPAN is doing a healthy amount of multimedia coverage of the DNC, but its willingness to send site visitors elsewhere on the Web is also impressive.

More:

Hometown Papers Splurge on Convention Coverage (The Wall Street Journal)

To fuel the round-the-clock coverage, the hometown papers have beefed up on their new-media tools. The Denver Post bought dozens of staffers BlackBerrys so they can update the Web site from the convention floor. The Rocky Mountain News has been training staffers how to take digital photos with cell phones and use the instant-messaging service Twitter for quick updates during the convention.

Bloggers Bloggers Stake Convention Claim in "Big Tent" (Poynter)

The Democratic National Convention Committee issued credentials to 124 bloggers this year -- a record number, but still just a fraction of the estimated 10,000 or so media camped out in four enormous tents in the parking lot of the Pepsi Center.

Gadgetry at the Democratic National Convention (Wired)

Bloggers and journalists are descending upon Denver, the site of the 2008 convention, like a cloud of locusts: And they're bringing their gear.

Convention Coverage a Story of Innovation Amid Cutbacks (Poynter)

As more than 10,000 news media representatives converge here for the Democratic National Convention, financial pressures have forced companies to scale back, team up and load up online. Blogging is not optional -- and may be done from a BlackBerry. Newspaper reporters are Twittering and shooting video. And some of the coverage is coming from the subjects of coverage -- delegates who blog and take photos.

Growing Mobile Revenue: Take-Aways from the Guide

2008-08-21T16:22:48-05:00

To help me in editing the Online Publishing Update,* my RSS reader is filled with subscriptions to feeds from eMarketer, Mobile Insider, comScore, Nielsen and a boatload of other trend-tracking sources. One common thread: Mobile revenue is going up.

Mobile is not the magic (or silver) bullet for the current general downturn in revenue at newspaper companies, but it’s an important part of the revenue picture.

Think of it in personal finance terms: Smart investors know it’s important to have a diverse range of investments. For newspapers, mobile is a great way to diversify, and this investment will definitely pay off in the long term.

With that in mind, I wanted to give you the Cliffs Notes version of the revenue article from our latest development and growth guide, Moving to Mobile. The entire article – plus information on mobile local search and more – is available at www.naa.org/mobile.

Here are a few takeaways:

Mobile advertising, frankly, is in an awkward spot right now. Advertisers know that mobile is going to be an important part of the advertising mix, but statistically solid ways to measure mobile advertising effectiveness just don’t exist (yet).

In addition, consumers are mostly still wary of getting ads on their mobile phone (especially because many people pay for each text message they receive. But the theoretical usefulness of mobile geotargeted ads can’t be denied.

At first glance, migrating advertising to the mobile platform looks easy – just plot a newspaper’s banner ad on the newspaper’s mobile site, right? Unfortunately, it’s not that easy. Here are some considerations: screen resolution, file size, processor speed, the phone’s OS (Windows, Palm, etc.), functionality… the list goes on.

Fortunately, 91 percent of the handsets fall into four very simple, standard display widths. And the Mobile Marketing Association has some great resources to help navigate those.

Other mobile advertising options include CSCs (common short codes), which are related to text-messaging; QR (quick response) codes – a.k.a. 2-D barcodes – which allow camera-phone owners to take a photo of a code that brings them to a Web site; coupons; image-recognition ads; classified ad models that incorporate any or all of the above options; social-mobile ads and video.

We’ve got information and advice on all these formats and more in the revenue section of Moving to Mobile. Click here.

* The Online Publishing Update is a thrice-weekly e-mail newsletter that is available with Digital Media Federation membership. To learn more about the federation, click here.

NAA Webinars Next Week: Local Search, Social Media Revenue

2008-08-20T13:22:20-05:00

The Newspaper Association of America has scheduled two new Webinars focusing on digital media revenues.

Local Search: Strategies for Audience and Revenue Growth
Tuesday, August 26, 2 p.m. ET

After much experimentation, newspapers are finding new ways to serve smaller advertisers online, some through enhanced local search capabilities, some through SEO services and others through interactive business directories. This Webinar will explore two successful models for capturing non-traditional advertisers, one from a small-market newspaper and one from a larger market organization. Register here.

More on local search is avaiable through NAA's recent Digital Edge report, also called "Local Search: Strategies for Audience and Revenue Growth."

Social Media: Grow Revenue Profitability Online with an Audience-Focused Business Model
Wednesday, August 27, 2 p.m. ET

Social media is a hot topic right now, with media companies experimenting with their own social media tools, and partnering with companies like LinkedIn and Twitter. With so many outlets for social engagement, most media companies are left wondering “Where do I begin and what's the best strategy?” A leading expert in the field will help you understand how to grow revenue profitability with an online audience-focused strategy. Register here.

Drudge Holds No. 1 Spot in Sessions per User; Pittsburgh, Buffalo Join List

2008-08-19T13:41:00-05:00

The Drudge Report held onto the No. 1 spot in July in monthly sessions per user among Nielsen Online’s Top 30 Current Events & Global News Destinations, slipping just slightly from last month to 20.5 sessions per user from 21.2 last month.

In the top 10, Daily Kos slipped a few places, leaving room for Fox News Digital Network to jump into the No. 2 spot. The Deseret Morning News dropped a few notches as well.

Nielsen Online provides these numbers to the Newspaper Association of America on a monthly basis, showing traffic and sessions per person* to the top 30 sites in the “News” category based on July 2008 numbers. It 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.

Newspapers

This month, 12 of the top 30 from Nielsen are newspaper companies, up from 10 last month. New newspaper additions to the top 30 were The Buffalo News (3.9 sessions per user) and The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (4.0 sessions per user).

The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel made the biggest move this month, jumping from 23^rd place to 15^th. Nielsen Online reported the newspaper now has an average of 5.1 sessions per user.

Other newspaper moves on the list from last month to this month:

Gannett’s Newspaper Division moved down just slightly, from 13^th place to 15^th.

The Star Tribune moved up to 14^th place from 15^th.

The New York Times moved to 20^th place, down four spots.

Media General moved up spots to 16^th.

USAToday.com moved down to 28^th from 24^th.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch and Cox Newspapers remained in 28^th and 30^th place, respectively.

* Note on the following numbers: Auto-refresh features on Web sites (i.e. when a Web site page reloads automatically) does not increase the number of sessions. For more information about the metrics, go to www.netratings.com

^ 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.

Brand or Channel Sessions per Person Unique Audience (000)

1. DrudgeReport.com 20.5 3,254

2. Fox News Channel 8.2 11,540

3. CNN Digital Network 8.1 32,977

4. AOL News 7.9 22,010

5. Daily Kos ^ 7.7 875

6. Yahoo! News 7.2 35,225

7. ksl.com ^ 6.9 973

8. Google News 6.3 10,776

9. Netscape 6.0 1,617

10. MSNBC Digital Network 5.7 37,516

11. Deseret Morning News ^ 5.6 931

12. Star Tribune 5.5 1,536

13. Milwaukee Journal Sentinel ^ 5.1 1,311

14. Media General Newspapers 5.1 1,699

15. Gannett Newspapers/Newspaper Division 5.0 13,254

16. TWC News Web Sites ^ 4.8 975

17. Breitbart.com 4.3 2,743

18. NYTimes.com 4.3 19,513

19. Hearst Newspapers Digital 4.3 8,225

20. Townhall.com 4.1 1,035

21. WorldNow 4.1 9,070

22. Newsmax.com 4.1 3,192

23. Real Clear Politics 4.1 1,033

24. IB Web Sites 4.0 5,633

25. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette 4.0 1,027

26. USAToday.com 3.9 10,404

27. Gannett Broadcasting 3.9 5,010

28. St. Louis Post-Dispatch ^ 3.9 1,014

29. The Buffalo News 3.9 417

30. Cox Newspapers 3.6 5,842

NAA Launches MediaXChange Conference

2008-08-19T10:58:41-05:00

As newspapers refocus their business models toward multiple platforms, the Newspaper Association of America today announced it would hold the first annual NAA mediaXchange, a new conference for industry professionals to share audience and revenue development strategies that have generated growth in print and online. The inaugural conference, a single event that will replace both NAA’s Marketing and NEXPO, marks an increased focus on emerging digital platforms. The event is scheduled for March 9-11, 2009, at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center in Las Vegas.

“NAA’s mediaXchange will offer newspaper professionals a chance to capitalize on results-oriented programming as the industry drives toward multiplatform success,” said NAA President and CEO John F. Sturm. “Speakers from both inside and outside the industry will join attendees to form a marketplace of ideas and strategies to grow advertising, increase audience and generate revenue. This exchange will spread to the show floor as companies serving all facets of the industry – from production and digital platforms to advertising solutions – will offer innovative products and services to help newspapers excel in today’s environment.”

More information on mediaXchange is available in today’s NAA press release.

Related links:

mediaXchange FAQs

mediaXchange site

Billboards Yield Page Views in Detroit

2008-08-14T16:35:52-05:00

This story was included in the Newspaper Association of America’s Circulation Update, a weekly e-newsletter sent to circulation executives.

The Detroit News and the Free-Press used electronic billboards, like the one below, to provide (and promote) breaking news of a story about Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick.

The impact of the billboards was immediately apparent: The day the billboards appeared, traffic to the Web sites spiked by 1 million page views when compared to the same day a week prior. For more numbers and details, click here to read the full article (sign-in required).

More stories like these are included in NAA’s Online Ideas Gallery, a searchable database of case studies and best practices. Start your own search here.

Of course, we’re always looking to hear your good ideas and newspaper success stories. If you have one you’d like to share, please e-mail me at beth.lawton@naa.org.

NAA?s New Development & Growth Guide Focuses on Mobile for Newspapers

2008-08-14T11:41:00-05:00

Today, the Newspaper Association of America's Digital Edge released a new development and growth guide for newspapers – this time focusing on mobile. The guide is available now at www.naa.org/mobile. Here’s the promo:

Mobile devices – frequently called the “third screen” – are an important distribution platform for newspapers. Mobile sites and services have great revenue potential, and they can build a newspaper’s audience and brand. NAA’s “Moving to Mobile,” a development and growth guide, includes information on mobile ads, local search, setting up mobile programs, reaching youth and e-readers. It also includes case studies from newspapers successful in this area.

Go to www.naa.org/mobile to access this NAA growth & development guide!

Mark Desautels, vice president of Wireless Internet Development at CTIA - The Wireless Association, wrote the introduction to “Moving to Mobile.” The following are excerpts from an interview with Desautels about the mobile Web and what it means for newspapers going forward. For the complete interview, please see Desaultes’ introduction to “Moving to Mobile.”

NAA: What are the three most telling or significant statistics right now in terms of U.S. mobile usage (and why)?

Desautels: 1) SMS text messaging continues to grow annually at triple digit rates, and is approaching 2 billion messages a day in the United States. The significance is that consumers are comfortable with interacting with each other, and even third parties, via text messaging, and that SMS will be an important platform for news distribution companies to utilize to interact with their subscribers going forward.

2) 87: That's the percentage of the U.S. population who are mobile phone subscribers, a phenomenal penetration rate that virtually ensures overlap with all newspaper subscribers.

3) 20 percent: That's the approximate percentage of wireless industry revenues attributable to non-voice (data) services, representing an amount that is still growing at double digit rates annually….

NAA: In terms of trends, do you see U.S. mobile device users adopting the mobile Web at a faster or slower rate in next few years?

Desautels: Mobile Web use is going to explode from here going forward. Sophisticated devices with great user interfaces, such as the iPhone, have demonstrated that customers would like to do, when mobile, many of the same things they do on a wireline Internet connection, and the existing wireless networks have demonstrated that they are capable of enabling such use. As those devices begin to proliferate across the base of wireless subscribers, we would anticipate a similar increase in demand for mobile Internet access and services….

NAA: What do you think will be the tipping point for the mobile Web? (Will it be cheaper data plans from carriers, faster networks, or more widespread adoption?)

Desautels: All of those things – lower prices, faster networks, better devices, more adoption – and something else: the integration into mobile applications of location-based information. One of the biggest drivers of Internet usage is the convenience it provides; the mobile Internet can provide exponentially more….

NAA: What should newspapers do to encourage mobile Web adoption?

Desautels: To the extent that a newspaper digitizes its content and provides access via a Web site, more and more mobile subscribers will be able to access that content as the conditions described above, in terms of device and network capabilities proliferate. And they will. But newspapers can also help drive mobile Web adoption by incorporating SMS text alert services for content of specific subscriber interest, as well as by enabling their Web sites to accept breaking news content from mobile devices. Because it is a two-way data communications system, mobile devices and networks will enable newspapers to both push their digitized content to subscribers as well as receive information back, in real time, vastly enhancing value to both….

NAA: What newspaper content do you think is most suited for the mobile Web?

Desautels: The simple answer is that anything newspaper subscribers want on the wired Internet, they will want on the wireless Internet. However, the opportunity to provide new services based on the current set of information that newspapers collect and are paid to distribute, such as advertising, could prove to be where the sweet spot is....

More Newspapers Twittering

2008-08-12T09:39:15-05:00

I’ve been out of the country without my computer (or any Web access!) for the past week, and found this in my flooded e-mail inbox when I returned:

This entry from Erica Smith’s graphicdesignr.net shows the June 2008 numbers from newspapers that use the micro-blogging service Twitter to post breaking news or sports updates or otherwise communicate with the audience.

When I wrote about newspapers using Twitter more than a year ago (click here), only a handful of newspapers had jumped in, including The New York Times, The Oregonian, and The (Nashua, N.H.) Telegraph, to name a few. Now, the list is at more than 300 and growing.

With any subscription service, as newspaper people know, there’s “churn.” This seems to be the case with Twitter, too. Similar to text-message alerts, it’s possible that people stop “following” a newspaper’s feed because there are too many messages or just because of the frequently noted Twitter downtimes.

Regardless, it’s encouraging to see that so many newspapers have adopted Twitter because it shows that newspaper digital media executives are really paying attention to whatever might be the “next hot thing”.

Some of the more notable statistics from Smith’s entry (as of early August):

The number of known newspapers on Twitter, according to Smith, is 303.

The average number of followers for those 303 newspapers Smith is following on Twitter was 131.85, slightly lower than the month before.

The New York Times had the most followers with 5,199. USA Today’s Pop Candy had 2,088, and The Wall Street Journal had 1,230. (These are for the main NYT and WSJ feeds; more people have subscribed to topic-specific feeds such as business or politics or breaking news.)

Newspapers Losing Share of Local, but Can Get it Back

2008-07-31T13:09:00-05:00

UPDATE: Peter Krasilovsky, vice president and program director of Marketplaces for The Kelsey Group, sent in his comments about today's Wall Street Journal article, "Newspapers Think Locally for Online Ads: Sales Efforts Increase, but 'Smaller Dollars' Prove Hard to Chase." More about the WSJ article and a recently-released relevant resource from NAA are below this update.

Here are Krasilovsky's comments:

As the Wall Street Journal article highlights, many newspapers are looking “downscale” to the high volume of smaller local advertisers to make up for their permanent losses in retail and classifieds. About 30 percent of an estimated 10 million local small businesses put the bulk of their marketing dollars into the Yellow Pages. They are “directional advertisers,” and more interested in making sure their phone rings than how many impressions their ads deliver. In fact most would have no sense of the CPM they are paying.

Are Yellow Page publishers vulnerable to such entreaties from newspapers and other local sellers? Sure, but it isn’t going to be simple to take them on. While some portion of small business advertisers have left the YP (typically, more retail oriented businesses), there is no wide scale abandonment at this point. Depending upon the category, the return on investment can be remarkably high – even with an average annual spend of $4,800. In addition, Yellow Pages publishers have another advantage: advertisers want to keep their position, year to year. Consequently, most efforts will be to grab budgets allocated to supplemental books or upsell efforts.

More importantly, at the local level, it is no longer an exclusive club of newspapers vs. Yellow Pages. Local advertisers are increasingly supplementing their YP buy with search engine optimization, search engine marketing, targeted email , featured listings, video production and links, and online promotions. Many are also investing more in their Websites.

Yellow Pages companies can (and are) providing such products. Many are selling 7-8 products, and because their own sites don’t provide enough traffic, they are syndicating traffic to a wide host of players. In this regard, they are way ahead of newspapers, who are still a world onto themselves –even with smaller and smaller local shares.

Yellow Pages, of course, are not the only ones selling such capabilities. There are a lot of ways of buying Google, OK?   A number of other third party resellers are seeking to sell such services to local businesses, in competition or partnership with Yellow Pages companies. In some cases, they are seeing large monthly budgets of $3,000-5,000. Some of these companies (i.e. ReachLocal, WebVisible, Orange Soda, SpotRunner, Yodle) are already working with newspapers, leveraging their strong local brands.

Ultimately, we see that newspapers have strong opportunities to enter these new areas of businesses and expect to see a great deal of new activity in this field. It will go beyond building a few vertical directories. The challenge, as the WSJ article correctly points out, is to get their sales and support activity to scale. While self serve efforts are rapidly improving, many small business owners are not ready for a self service option.

The Kelsey Group forecasts that 25 percent of local online dollars will come from “marketplace dollars" (verticals and classifieds) by 2012. But positioning these marketpalce as replacement dollars for traditional newspaper revenues doesn’t do anyone a favor. They are , in fact, exciting new lines of business. As newspapers focus more on their niche and vertical strategies, all of this has to become a larger part of their gameplan.

Peter Krasilovsky

Vice President and Program Director, Marketplaces

The Kelsey Group

(Peter Krasilovsky wrote "The Newspaper Online Shopping Report" for NAA last year.)

This morning, The Wall Street Journal reported that over the past few years, the number of local salespeople selling online ads for newspapers has more-than doubled. But, “newspapers now control only 27.4 percent of the local online ad market.” This is down from 35.9 percent of the market in 2006, according to Borrell Associates.

Among the reasons for this: “The types of ads that newspaper companies are selling -- typically banner ads -- don't correspond with the needs of a local merchant. And much of the potential local online ad revenue growth comes from small and medium-size local businesses, a market segment that newspaper companies have typically ignored,” The Journal reported. In addition, the local online ad market is growing, as more companies sign up with Google. And, of course, the fact that online newspaper ads are cheaper than print ads isn’t helping newspapers’ bottom lines in this area.

Part of the solution may lie in local search and directories. Local search – for example, typing “city, dry cleaners” into a search engine or going to a locally-based or geographically-filtering review site or business directory – is a key way customers find businesses. For the newspaper, directories can be a great way to get a foot in the door of businesses that may not have enough money to purchase print ads. Creating newspaper Web site-based directories for local businesses can not only drive site traffic and help advertisers, but also it can eliminate the hurdle many ad sales people stumble over when a small business owner wants to advertise online, but doesn’t yet have a Web site.

In talking about the Lawrence Journal-World’s Marketplace, an online directory of local businesses that includes everytyhing from maps to hours, Sara Wilhelm said the newspaper’s directory is “like a Yellow Pages gold mine.” It sounds like it’s time for more newspapers to move in this direction.

Earlier this month, NAA released a Digital Edge report highlighting the opportunities in this area and looking at what newspapers can do to increase revenue. Here’s the info:

Local Search: Strategies for Audience and Revenue Growth

Newspapers are finding new and varied ways of tapping into the search space. Some are blending news and targeted advertising content with more sophisticated search tools, at times supplemented by human hands to differentiate them from the competition. Others still are feeding local-business listings to Google and other sites, or discovering potentially lucrative niches by helping their local advertisers play in both worlds.

The case studies in “Local Search: Strategies for Audience and Revenue Growth” examine several strategies, including:

Boston.com’s creation of integrated search and its use of “search as platform.”

Freedom Interactive’s companywide priority on search sales, integrating search optimization with traditional advertising in its markets.

Ottaway’s metadata-sharing partnership with Google to bolster its regional directory sites.

GateHouse Media’s product search strategy.

NH.com’s consolidation of disparate verticals into a statewide directory to drive critical mass.

The Lawrence Journal-World’s use of an online directory to open the door for new advertisers.

SavannahNow.com’s use of SEO as a sales tactic to sell a blended array of services.

The Wall Street Journal article mentioned The Bakersfield Californian has started holding free seminars for local business owners about how to get their listings to appear on Google, Yahoo and on the newspaper’s own InsideGuide. We published a “Snapshot from the Edge” last year about the InsideGuide, and the newspaper contributed an update to that Snapshot that is included in the local search report.

On a separate-but-related note, we included this in the Online Publishing Update yesterday:

Borrell: Yellow Pages Print Advertising to Decrease 39 Percent in Five Years

Borrell Associates is predicting that 39 percent of advertising spending on print yellow pages will “vanish” in the next five years. “After 12 years as an advertising medium, the Internet has finally reached small-business owners with viable marketing opportunities in the form of keyword advertising, interactive directories and low-priced online video commercials. The recession appears to be triggering the shift,” according to Borrell Associates’ new report, “Say Goodbye to Yellow Pages.” The report also notes the substantial rise in online sales representatives across media categories and the growing importance of video advertising for local businesses.

Source: Borrell Associates

AlwaysOn Ups Ante Naming 250 Stars in ?08

2008-07-30T13:55:00-05:00

Melinda Gipson, formerly of the Newspaper Association of America and of GateHouse Media, attended the Stanford AlwaysOn Summit last week.The following is one of Gipson’s reports. Watch this space for information about where to find more newspaper-oriented coverage from Gipson of the AlwaysOn Summit.

AlwaysOn Ups Ante Naming 250 Stars in ‘08

Palo Alto, CA – Tony Perkins has probably earned the right to crow. He famously predicted the “dot-bomb” right before it went off, for instance, and through the darkest aftermath, companies he and his AlwaysOn advisors picked as leading potential entrepreneurial investments have managed to stay ahead of the curve for profitable exits. In venture capital or VC-speak, an “exit” is that point at which early investors see a return on their investment, either through the company going public – as likely this year as a woman in the White House – or in today’s more common “merger.”

Being a member of past AO 100 companies gave you about a third of a chance to exit at three times the industry average, Perkins claims. A study from the 451 Group found that, among the previous AO 100 companies 23 companies have been acquired in just the last 12 months for a total of $5.5 billion. Microsoft

Deals are clearly down from a 2005-2006 high of 27, and – depending on who you ask – all were bought out by another company rather than through public offering. Microsoft is the largest “serial acquirer” of AO firms, having now bought six of them.

That said, the yearly listing is somewhat misleading – companies that have appeared on past lists may recur – among this year’s top 250 are many repeats such as Aggregate Knowledge, Digg, Facebook, Gaia – last year’s winner – Topix, Tremor, Trulia, Yelp and Zillow, being among those already familiar to newspaper companies in one way or another.

There’s a long list of “green tech” start-ups, which, while probably worth watching, don’t have a lot to do with publishing; and infrastructure plays – other than making the point repeatedly that selling software as a service is here to stay – don’t generally become competitive game-changers.

Four categories do: Mobile, Consumer & Community, Online Advertising Service Providers and Enablers, and we’ll cherry-pick each of these a bit to raise a flag or mark trend lines.

But we don’t want to miss the forest for the trees. A few key trends are worth highlighting without being tied to any single company.

1. Angels are becoming the new early-stage investors and VCs of Silicon Valley, but entrepreneurs in large measure are shouldering more of the burden to become profitable fast. In this economy, start-ups generally are being asked to make it farther on their own steam using their own seed capital, and to demonstrate larger growth rates and revenues before measuring up to even angel investment. As Ron Conway, founder of SV Angels, put it, “It takes more money to fund a mediocre business than a great one.”

Investments of $500,000 at a time – what a panel of angel investors referred to as sufficient to establish “microcaps” – may in large part be viewed as sufficient start-up cash because it just takes less money to start a tech company these days. There’s so much disruption in the ecosystem of the Web that companies like StumbleUpon, Digg, Twitter, and Spiceworks all were built on rapid internal growth, until they got to the point where they sometimes need to jump a chasm to bigger growth and “build the plumbing” required of a larger company, as one investor described it.

Sarbanes-Oxley compliance certainly puts a crimp on growth, and may create the kind of leverage that causes smaller companies to sell out earlier than they might otherwise, just to acquire the kind of infrastructure needed to support the reporting requirements, investors complained. But companies aiming to grow from the start have to invest in SOX plumbing from the get-go, because just like a house built without it, it’s much more costly to add later.

2. While green investments are widely expected to grow by 10 percent or more in the coming year, summit attendees surveyed say that the digital entertainment sector expected to receive the most funding this year is mobile (43 percent of voters thought so, as compared with 25 percent of respondents who thought social media would lead, 20 percent who voted for content and 11 percent who picked tech enablers.) Mobile also was voted as the sector most likely to see more M&A activity, and within the category, the the biggest opportunities were seen for mobile content. As for total investments, mobile was ranked a close third after “greentech” and digital entertainment in total anticipated investment dollars this year.

Those most in the know about mobile – panelists from Nokia, Google, and Qualcomm – all predicted that carriers will likely have to find a way to share the individual handset location coordinates that are so instrumental to applications that can be personalized to a given cell-phone user. There’s just too much upside opportunity there to be ignored, they agreed. Multiple Google panelists affirmed that the new Android operating system, on track to be available in commercial phones by Q3, will be flexible enough to accommodate many applications never envisioned by the search behemoth. It will, as one asserted, be “nothing like Microsoft.”

3. Several entrepreneurs, and their investors, managed to comment in completely different contexts that no-one has managed yet to crack the code on “local” services online. Among those on the AO 250 who are trying: OpenTable and NearbyNow. Though it didn’t make the AO list, Outside:in did present in the summit CEO forums and pointed out that its local BuzzMap of most blogged about places in D.C. Maryland and Virginia, is now live on on the site of its partner WashingtonPost.com. And BookingAngel.com, an Australian company poised to give OpenTable a run for its money, said unequivocally that Internet Yellow Pages are “dying.” A most concerted effort among all local leaders appears to be a focus on some version of a “pay for results” or pay-per-booking business model. But, at least in the case of BookingAngel, the reservation works automatically, generating a qualified lead sales opportunity until the prospective business client is virtually forced to reject business or pay between $3.50 and $8 per reservation. If the local search marketplace in increasingly populated, it certainly appears that the survivors will have at least proven their right to survive.

4. The more mature the Internet supposedly becomes as an industry, the more likely companies sound like they were named by a 4-year-old.

OPU: Newspaper Sites Attract 66.4 Million Unique Visitors in Second Quarter

2008-07-30T08:56:00-05:00

Today’s Online Publishing Update is here on the Digital Edge blog to make room for a special edition of the OPU that NAA e-mailed to Digital Media Federation members this morning. (Want to get the OPU in your inbox? Check it out here today and get it 3x/week by joining the Digital Media Federation! If you have questions about the OPU or about the Federation, please ask me at beth.lawton@naa.org.)

Newspaper Sites Attract 66.4 Million Unique Visitors in Second Quarter
Newspaper Web sites attracted nearly 66.4 million unique visitors on average (40.2 percent of all Internet users) in the second quarter of 2008, a 12.2 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 just over three billion page views per month throughout the quarter, compared with nearly 2.7 billion during the same period last year, NAA reported.

Source: NAA

Twitter, Texting Worked in L.A. Earthquake When Phones Failed
Text messaging and sending messages via Twitter proved an effective communications tool during an emergency yesterday. “Twittering and texting may be the way to go in an emergency, given landline and cellular phone networks were heavily congested as callers jammed the lines, creating frustration for some users who had difficulty getting calls through,” CNet’s News.com reported.

The Los Angeles Times’ Web site was temporarily offline following the earthquake due to high demand. (NAA’s PRESSTIME magazine last month featured a story about how to prevent your newspaper’s Web site from crashing under high demand.)

Sources: CNet, Editor & Publisher, NAA

EveryBlock Partners with Chicago Tribune
EveryBlock, a database-driven local news and information site, has partnered with the Chicago Tribune. A map on ChicagoTribune.com shows local news articles from the past 48 hours that have referenced certain areas of the city, EveryBlock announced. The feature is at www.chicagotribune.com/block.

Sources: EveryBlock, The Chicago Tribune

Game Over for Scrabulous; Official Scrabble Experiences ‘Technical Difficulties’
The tiles scattered for thousands of Scrabulous players this morning, as the Facebook application shut down after Hasbro, which holds the rights to the original Scrabble, filed a lawsuit.

Hasbro’s own Scrabble application, however, failed Tuesday afternoon under the high server load, CNet’s News.com reported.

Sources: CNet, The New York Times

AP, Newspapers Settle Suit Against Police News Publishing Co.
The Associated Press and several newspapers (including three Hearst Corp. newspapers in Texas) settled a lawsuit they filed this spring against the Police News Publishing Co. The Police News Publishing Co. Web sites had been posting newspaper content online alongside advertising, and later archiving that content. The lawsuit was over copyright violations.

With the settlement, the defendant will “only be able to copy the headline and up to the first two sentences of any stories from the newspapers. The Web sites can copy and publish only headlines and the first paragraph from AP stories provided to them by the news service. All stories used by the Web sites must be attributed to their original sources and include a copyright notice and link to the original work,” AP reported.

Source: AP via Editor & Publisher

Quote of the Day: Jarvis on Educating NPR’s Garfield about Comments
“I know you didn’t like my own observation of irony in your report. Fine, dismiss that as just another damned comment. But note well, my friend, that all of these people are speaking to you with intelligence, experience, generosity, and civility. You know what’s missing? Two things: First, the sort of nasty comments your own piece decries. And second: You. Bob, the best way to learn about the conversation online is to join in.”

-- BuzzMachine blogger Jeff Jarvis in a blog post wrapping up the reactions to Bob Garfield’s NPR piece about the value (or not) of online comments.

Washingtonpost.com Partners with Predictify

Washingtonpost.com is letting readers predict the outcome of certain news stories through a partnerships with Predictify.com. The online poll program and washingtonpost.com have created a “Prediction Center” where site visitors can post their predictions and discuss them through comments. The most accurate predictions will appear on a leaderboard, TechCrunch reported. Try it out here.

Source: TechCrunch

Borrell: Yellow Pages Print Advertising to Decrease 39 Percent in Five Years

Borrell Associates is predicting that 39 percent of advertising spending on print yellow pages will “vanish” in the next five years. “After 12 years as an advertising medium, the Internet has finally reached small-business owners with viable marketing opportunities in the form of keyword advertising, interactive directories and low-priced online video commercials. The recession appears to be triggering the shift,” according to Borrell Associates’ new report, “Say Goodbye to Yellow Pages.” The report also notes the substantial rise in online sales representatives across media categories and the growing importance of video advertising for local businesses.

Source: Borrell Associates

‘Flippers’ Head Online
Buying something of low quality, fixing it up and selling it for a profit was once reserved for the real estate market. Now, a number of entrepreneurs are seeking out poorly done Web sites, buying them, improving them, growing traffic and selling them for a (usually modest) profit, The New York Times reported.

Source: The New York Times

TV Show Viewing Online is Not Additive

Approximately 20 percent of television shows are now watched online, and 10 percent of that online viewing is replacing – not adding to – television viewing, according to a study from Integrated Media Measurement. More than 31 percent of those who watch television shows online are catching up on shows they missed earlier. “This suggests that the migration of consumption from one platform to another is only a matter of time for all of the online ’snackers’,” according to the study. (See Lost Remote for more details, or download the full report here.)

Sources: Lost Remote, Integrated Media Measurement

The Latest from NAA

Snapshot from the Edge: CopyCamp Brings Community Offline and Into the Newsroom

Local Search: Strategies for Audience and Revenue Growth

Engaging Users: User-Generated Content and Tools for Newspapers

Customers in View: How Media Managers Can Lead to Produce Results in the Marketplace

CopyCamp Brings Community Offline and Into the Newsroom

2008-07-24T16:25:46-05:00

We’ve published a new Snapshot from the Edge!

Normally, Snapshots are digitally focused: Past Snapshots included those about newspapers using Twitter, live-streaming video interviews with presidential candidates, and creating interactive grocery carts.

But this one is about the first newspaper to take an idea that originated in the tech community and run with it – offline. At the end of CopyCamp, newspaper staffers had stronger community connections and a bunch of good ideas.

CopyCamp Brings Community Offline and Into the Newsroom

At a time when newspapers are trying to connect with their readers through article comments, social networks and other Web 2.0 tools, The San Jose Mercury News took a step in the opposite direction.

“Nothing beats just sitting across the table from someone else and having a conversation,” said Mercury News business reporter and columnist Chris O’Brien.

Continue reading…

Questions about sign-in? Ask me!

20 Under 40 Deadline Extended to Aug. 15

2008-07-24T14:00:35-05:00
NAA's PRESSTIME magazine has extended the deadline for the 20 Under 40 awards. Here's the announcement:

Help us honor the industry's top young talent. The deadline for nominations for PRESSTIME's 20 Under 40 awards has been extended to Aug. 15, 2008. The annual awards recognize high achievers from all parts of the newspaper industry and from newspapers of all sizes. Winners are profiled in the December issue of PRESSTIME and on www.naa.org/presstime.

Go to www.naa.org/presstime/20under40entry and submit a nomination today.
There is no limit to the number of nominations that can be submitted, but nominees must work for NAA-member newspaper companies.

For more information, contact PRESSTIME Associate Editor John Heys at (571) 366-1108 or john.heys@naa.org.

AlwaysOn Summit at Stanford

2008-07-24T09:49:00-05:00
Melinda Gipson, formerly of the Newspaper Association of America and of GateHouse Media, is live blogging from the Stanford AlwaysOn Summit. Melinda will be giving us a wrap-up for newspaper editors and publishers early next week. Her live coverage is at newzmaven.com.

From the conference Web site:

The AlwaysOn & STVP Summit at Stanford is a two-and-a-half-day executive gathering that highlights the significant economic, political and commercial trends affecting the global technology industries….

Who attends: Seven hundred technology, media and advertising CEOs, business development officers, media buyers, venture capital and private-equity investors, and leading members of the press and blogging community.

Gawker's McClear Wants to End Newspaper Commenting

2008-07-22T11:43:00-05:00

Yesterday afternoon on Gawker.com, Sheila McClear wrote a piece on why newspapers should no longer allow comments on articles.

“Comments are thought to be an added value to a newspaper's site—providing another reason to read. You come for the article, and stay for the interesting discussion,” she wrote. “The only problem is, there is no interesting discussion. Almost never. Not even from the mythical supersmart New York Times readers.”

McClear goes on to provide examples of the inappropriate comments that commonly appear with many newspaper articles online – and the reason why many newspapers have “report this comment” links prominently placed alongside comment sections.

“You could argue that newspapers should rigorously vet and moderate their comments, or at least require them to use their full names. I'd argue that this is a silly misuse of their time; I'm not suggesting that newspapers should actively patrol their comments, like this and some other Web sites do…. I'm suggesting they get rid of them altogether.”

But comments have served newspapers very well in the past several years. USA Today and other newspapers have gotten news tips and information from story commenters, which have improved reporting. In addition, allowing readers to comment – and having reporters or editors participate in those discussions – creates a new positive connection with the community and can help build the newspaper’s brand. Comments drive traffic, too, and encourage readers to return to the newspaper’s Web site multiple times each day.

In NAA’s “Online Community Cookbook,” Rich Gordon of Northwestern University wrote, “Time and again, interactive services have found that interpersonal conversations drive usage and loyalty much better than passive consumption of content.”

But comments are also good for readers. Comments can be entertaining or thought-provoking. They can provide new and interesting information. They can build community.

“Another important usage-driving experience uncovered by Readership Institute research was labeled ‘Connects me with others.’ Users describe sites that foster this experience with words like this: ‘I’m as interested in input from other users as I am in the regular content on this site,’ and ‘A big reason I like this site is what I get from other users.’

NAA’s recent research on user-generated content and Web 2.0 tools confirms this. This is especially true with newspaper site-hosted local business directories and reviews, but it applies to other comments on online newspaper content, as well. Among total respondents to a recent survey on user-generated content, 60 percent said comments or user-contributed reviews on newspaper Web sites are somewhat, very or extremely appealing. Of that 60 percent, more than half are non-newspaper readers.

“The ability to rate comments and reviews in terms of their helpfulness, the ability to see the commenter/reviewer profiles and privately message those people are also interesting to respondents,” according to the report.

The solution to McClear’s criticism of newspaper site comments is improved moderation, community management and active participation by newspaper staff. Removing the commenting ability of newspaper Web sites would hurt both readers and the newspaper.

If McClear doesn’t like comments on articles, she can always just not read them.

To learn more about effective community management on newspaper Web sites, go to www.naa.org/digitaledge/cookbook.

To learn more about user-generated content opportunities for newspaper Web sites, go to www.naa.org/ugcopportunities.

Also, be sure to register for tomorrow's NAA Webinar on UGC.

Note: Some content on NAA.org is only accessible by employees of NAA member newspapers. You will be presented with a sign in page when you click on the links above. Your default user name and password (both!) are your business e-mail address. You can change your password by going to NAA’s Member Center after you have signed in.

PEJ Research Shows Mixed World for Newspapers

2008-07-21T09:44:54-05:00

There’s no doubt newspapers are cutting back on business reporting, original international reporting and features reporting (especially reviews), and the Summer of Layoffs is certainly in full swing.

But even with the bad news and falling stock prices, newspaper editors feel torn, according to “The Changing Newsroom: Gains and Losses in Today's Papers,” from the Project for Excellence in Journalism.

The changes that come with the Web and other new technologies are exciting but scary. “Editors feel torn between the advantages the Web offers and the energy it consumes to produce material often of limited or even questionable value. A plurality of editors (48 percent), for instance, say they are conflicted by the trade-offs between the speed, depth and interactivity of the Web and what those benefits are costing in terms of accuracy and journalistic standards,” according to the research. “A slightly smaller percentage (43 percent) thinks ‘Web technology offers the potential for greater-than-ever journalism and will be the savior of what we once thought of as newspaper newsrooms.’”

New job requirements are drawing in younger journalists, but older journalists (and their institutional knowledge) are leaving. “Newsroom executives say the infusion of new blood has brought with it a new competitive energy, but they also cite the departure of veteran journalists, along with the talent, wisdom and institutional memory they hold as their single greatest loss.”

There are fewer reporters and fewer editors at many newspapers to write stories and catch any errors, but more than half of those surveyed (56 percent) “think their news product is better than it was three years earlier.”

PEJ’s study was based on interviews at newspapers in 15 cities and a survey of senior news executives from 259 newspapers. PEJ reported better than 1 in 5 U.S. daily newspapers participated in some way. PEJ and Princeton Survey Research Associates conducted the study in the first quarter of this year.

The Digital Influence
In a section on “The Influence of the Web,” researchers found the Web is the second biggest influencer on newsroom culture – behind, of course, financial pressures

“Editor’s responses indicated, often with a sense of surprise, that the growth of newspaper Web sites has also had a positive impact on the content of the newspaper itself. Interviews and survey results strongly indicated that — contrary to early conventional wisdom — the print and Web site versions of today’s daily newspapers can be complementary and mutually strengthening,” PEJ reported. Still, nearly half (48 percent) of the study’s respondents said they felt “conflicted” about the Web – 5 percent more than those who said they were “excited” about it.

Regardless of how newspaper editors feel about the Web, there’s no doubt multimedia skills are of the utmost importance. Predictably, 100 percent of respondents said “writing skills” are essential. Ninety-six percent of editors said “overall computer skills” are essential, and 90 percent said “multimedia skills” are key.

Required skills aren’t all that’s changing. It was long true that journalists rarely arrived at work before 9 a.m. However, the PEJ study found an increasing percentage of newspapers are adding “early” teams to cover breaking news that happens just hours after the print newspaper hits the driveway.

Along with new hours, the Web has also spurred new jobs – especially online newspaper videographers and mobile journalists who work primary in the field and spend less and less time at their “desks.” The majority of newspaper editors included in this study said mojos make very positive contributions to the newspaper.

“More than three-quarters (78 percent) of those editors in newsrooms where reporters had been trained to shoot and file video footage from a remote location said they found “Mo Jo’s” contributed either ’some’ or ‘a great deal’ of value to the news product. Among editors of larger newspapers, the positive response was even higher at 90 percent,” according to PEJ.

In addition to mobile journalists, staff-written blogs, online video and other Web elements will be fundamental as the newspaper continues its forward move into the digital media age. PEJ reported, “A growing number of publishers and editors, having concluded the era of print newspaper domination has ended, now believe the future of their newsroom depends on how well they can do two things: (1) Establish themselves as strong, relevant Web content providers for a generation of online news consumers; and (2) Maintain relevant, compelling content for the newspaper’s print edition that remains the industry’s primary, albeit diminished, cash cow.”

The full report is available at journalism.org, the Web site of PEJ.