Noted by the Readership Institute

10 ways to get young people engaged with the news media

2010-08-19T13:51:00.004-05:00

Christopher Sopher, a senior at the University of North Carolina, has posted a list of 10 Ways to Improve News for Young People. His first three suggestions: 1. Use road signs and maps; 2.Offer wisdom journalism; and 3. Personalize.

Sopher recently discussed his research on the Nieman Journalism Lab site. His conclusion is that "news organizations need to create a more usable, relevant, and explanatory experience and combine it with serious support for news literacy and news-in-schools programs that communicate to young people why they ought to use and support journalism."

Sopher's complete report, Younger Thinking, draws on research from the Readership Institute and the Media Management Center.

Canadians still like newspapers; also find time for more Internet, TV

2010-03-22T17:20:00.006-05:00

77% of adult Canadians read a print or online newspaper at least once a week in markets where dailies are available, according to the 2009 readership study released by NADbank. Most (73%) are reading the print editions, 22% read the online editions, and only 4% read online exclusively. Readership is flat or even slightly increased from last year, and is fairly consistent across age groups and occupations.

Canadians also are for the first time spending more time online - 18 hours per week - than they are watching television, though their TV time has also increased, according to a new Ipsos Reid tracking study. But Canadians aren't neglecting their newspapers, magazines, or radio either; the hours spent with these media have remained stable. So where do they find the time?

Pew study suggests traditional news media is bleeding revenue - and online isn't providing relief

2010-03-15T15:41:00.005-05:00

The Pew Research Center's State of the News Media 2010 report suggests that newspapers and other journalistic organizations are losing the race to find new revenue models to support news reporting. Newspapers, radio, local and network television, magazines, and online ad revenues all declined in 2009; only cable - largely thanks to Fox News - held its own.

Pew is pessimistic that online ads or paywalls are the answer. It found that 79% of online users said that they rarely or never click on online ads and only 19% would pay to visit their favorite site. New media models, such as non-profit news starts-ups, are not picking up the slack in revenues or reporting. Non-profits have invested a total of $141 million in new media efforts since 2006; newspapers have had to cut their annual newsroom budgets by $1.6 billion since 2000.

Outsell: Readers switching to Internet for "News Right Now"

2010-02-03T16:45:00.002-06:00

A new report from Outsell contends that newspaper circulation will continue to decline at a 3.5% annual rate as new consumers turn to the Internet for "News Right Now." Jack Loechner at MediaPost summarizes the report; newspapers will be most vulnerable on national topics and strongest on local topics, news, family events, and entertainment. Paywalls don't seem promising; 75% of these surveyed said they would look for free news elsewhere online if their newspaper Web sites required some sort of paid subscription.

Newspaper journalists want a quicker move to digital

2009-09-23T12:29:00.003-05:00

A new study by the Media Management Center suggests that U.S. newspaper journalists are ready and even eager to make the transition to digital in their jobs. Life beyond print surveyed almost 3,800 journalists in 79 newsrooms across the U.S. Far from being resistant to change, almost half of the journalists surveyed said that their newsroom's transition from print to digital was going too slowly. Only 20% like things the way they are or long for a return to the good old days.

Print and broadcast top Internet for recession news

2009-07-16T13:27:00.001-05:00

People seeking information about the recession were more likely to rely on television, radio, and print than the Internet, according to a new report by the Pew Internet & American Life Project. 84% of the people polled said they used television or radio to get news about the economy, 64% read newspapers, magazines, and books, and 48% used the Internet. Broadband users used the Internet more, but were still more likely to use broadcast and just as likely to use print to get their economic news. Pew's report is based on a telephone survey of 2,253 adults from March 26 to April 19, 2009.

Can newspapers hold on?

2009-06-16T10:42:00.002-05:00

Most newspapers continue to be profitable, despite the issues that you read about. The question many may be asking today is how long can they hold on? PriceWaterhouseCoopers has issued its Global Entertainment and Media Outlook: 2009-2013 and predicts an advertising turnaround in 2011 for the publishing industry. Even then it is not good news. Writing in his Paid Content blog, Rafat Ali quoted the following from the forecast:

Four segments - recorded music, B2B publishing, newspapers, and consumer magazines - will suffer actual declines in total global revenues during 2009-2013 as a whole, in stark contrast to CAGR in excess of 6 percent in Internet access, Internet advertising, video games, and TV subscriptions and license fees, and of 4 percent in filmed entertainment, which will become an increasingly digitally-driven segment.

Advertising revenues as a whole are facing a period of broad decline over the coming five years, with global advertising spend across all media projected to be still below its 2008 level in 2013. This means a "profound structural shift during the five years towards more targeted and cost-effective ad models enabled by digital. This in turn may result in a permanent reduction in total advertising spend, as dollars formerly 'wasted' through inaccurate targeting are saved and reallocated to other priorities," says the report.

It may be retro, but newsletters are selling online

2009-02-26T17:40:00.002-06:00

It may sound odd that space on a low-tech newsletter could be desirable in an age of mass-market blogs, when young people increasingly rely on instant messaging, texts, and such sites as Twitter and Facebook instead of e-mail. But remember that signing up for and opening an e-mail newsletter is a much bigger commitment than passively clicking on a link that takes you to a blog post, notes Sarah Lacy in an article for BusinessWeek.com. One publisher she mentions commands $40 per 1,000 views of some newsletter ads. Newsletters likely won't keep large media enterprises afloat, but a carefully produced (for example, local content of value - not selling), well-targeted (opt-in - not spam) digest could mean near-term revenue, she says. Publishers can see how many people open an e-mail, how long they read it, and how many friends they forward it to. Advertisers eat up that kind of engagement.

There's that phrase again

2009-02-20T13:44:00.003-06:00

"Easy to use" was one of the traits Jack Shafer found distinctive to the few Web sites he could cite as having found success with the fee-for-access model. Writing for Slate this week, Shafer said all share at least one of the following: "1) They are so amazing as to be irreplaceable. 2) They are beautifully designed and executed and extremely easy to use. 3) They are stupendously authoritative." Media Management Center researchers have heard the "easy to use" phrase for years. MMC associate Stacy Lynch offers some help on deciphering what that means in a blog post and her recent Web Favorite and Easy to Use studies for the Center.

Yahoo: Network ads can increase local reach fourfold

2009-02-18T11:36:00.000-06:00

The Yahoo advertising platform developed in partnership with nearly 500 newspapers may be able to reach 80 percent of online users in a geographic area, versus the 20 percent or less typically delivered by a single newspaper's Web site, an exec for the search engine told The Palm Beach Post. The network relies on behavioral targeting, sending users information on products they've recently browsed for online. For those concerned with privacy, Yahoo allows opt-outs. What do newspapers bring to the game? A local sales force.

Oscar ad spots not so shiny this year

2009-02-17T14:01:00.000-06:00

Traditionally, a handful of blue-chip brands have dominated the commercials supporting the Academy Awards, the second-biggest TV event after the Super Bowl. But the New York Post reports some of the regulars have cut back or taken a pass altogether due to factors associated with the U.S. economic crisis. Some advertisers may fear a consumer backlash against big spenders, others are being circumspect after accepting federal bailout bucks. The slack demand has led ABC to reportedly cut the price of a single 30-second spot by up to $400,000. Some advertisers still in the lineup say they'll go with retreads rather than debut new spots.

Who's covering Washington?

2009-02-12T12:26:00.002-06:00

Cuts in newspaper budgets might suggest a substantially depleted Washington press corps, but a new study by the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism shows the corps is not so much smaller as it is dramatically transformed. While representation by mainstream media has declined, a new sector of niche media coverage has grown. These reporters produce more specialized articles, and for more narrowly targeted and often elite audiences. Also, the number of reporters representing foreign media has grown to nearly 10 times the size it was a generation ago. The number of newspapers accredited to cover Congress has fallen by two-thirds as compared to the 1980s. The number claiming a presence in Washington generally, according to capitol directories, has fallen by more than half.

NYT opens its online archives

2009-02-05T13:20:00.002-06:00

The New York Times has been exposing more data to external websites and applications recently, and now provides the ability to search the Times' entire online article archive of 2.8 million items going back to 1981. A post at VentureBeat.com explains The Times is doing so through application programming interfaces (APIs), which let third-party company developers access the data easily. For now, there's no charge to access the data, although the terms of service leave the possibility open.

Online beat TV on Inauguration Day

2009-02-04T08:16:00.002-06:00

Like newspapers, television is balancing with one foot in its traditional space and the other in digital. The latest wakeup message: a combined 37.8 million Americans watched the inauguration of Barack Obama on TV, while more than 40 million unique visitors watched streaming coverage online throughout the day, Nielsen data shows. The TV industry is moving slowly toward the Internet, Reuters reports, but the "flawed but efficient" 70-year-old TV model continues to pay the bills. ABC News seems to be covering its bases, launching a free application for the Apple iPhone that uses location-based technology to deliver local news video from the user's nearest affiliate.

9 of top 10 online editions saw more visits in December

2009-01-28T10:56:00.001-06:00

Visitors to the top 10 U.S. newspaper websites grew to 40.1 million in December, an increase of 16 percent over a year ago, Nielsen 0nline reports. In the No. 1 spot was the New York Times website, NYTimes.com, with 18.2 million unique visitors, up 6 percent as compared with December 2007. Filling in the top five were USAToday.com, 11.4 million unique visitors, up 15 percent; WashingtonPost.com, 9.5 million unique visitors, up 12 percent; LATimes.com, 8 million unique visitors, up 73 percent; WSJ.com, 7.2 million, up 34 percent. Only one among the list of top newspaper websites saw a decline. Boston.com, the online edition of The Boston Globe, saw a 6 percent drop in visitors, to 4.1 million for the month. Nielson also reported visitors to the websites were coming back with greater frequency.

Experts: Saving newspapers about relevance, pace, brand

2009-01-26T12:20:00.002-06:00

The online edition of The Deal Magazine, a resource for investors, found a Connecticut firm still interested in buying newspapers and asked why. The article also cites experts on what they think it will take for newspaper companies to weather 2009. The answers may seem familiar: an intense focus on delivering content readers find relevant, smartly leveraging the brand relationship and for veteran journalists to learn a fast-paced new game that demands attention to the audience's time, attention and clicks. Those are frequent themes in Readership Institute Get Smart blog posts and RI research.

Many think Obama reflects their interests

2009-01-22T17:10:00.002-06:00

More Americans say that people like themselves will gain influence under the Obama administration than was the case for the last two incoming presidents, a recent poll shows. Those who think they will gain under the new president includes groups that overwhelmingly supported Obama last November, but also many that did not - including pluralities of all whites and white evangelical Christians. In the latest poll by the Pew Research Center, conducted Jan. 7-11, 47 percent said that people like themselves would gain influence under Barack Obama, 18 percent said they would lose influence, and 29 percent said they would not be affected.

Survey: Advertisers wish for Google competition

2009-01-20T14:47:00.001-06:00

Google's size and market share continue to worry advertisers and it will be important for a strong competitor to emerge, says a survey conducted by the International Advertising Association and underwritten in part by Microsoft. Advertising Age reports a majority of respondents said they need more choices and pricing options.

Local blog-to-print newspaper test set

2009-01-14T10:16:00.001-06:00

Wired reports a new twist for hyper-local content: The Printed Blog, a startup by former business productivity software entrepreneur Joshua Karp, is launching a twice-daily free print newspaper in several U.S. cities aggregating localized blog posts. Ads are cheap - $15-$25 - and the paper has already lined up a number of Chicago-based businesses for its debut. It will also host classified ads. The first issue is set to launch Jan. 27, handed out at three public transit stations in Chicago and one location in San Francisco. A New York edition is due shortly. Karp expects to spend less than $15,000 to print and distribute the first six-page edition.

Deloitte: Brits favor old media

2009-01-09T09:19:00.001-06:00

Traditional media including print, TV and radio remains more popular than online in Britain, according to research from Deloitte reported by Printweek.com. The consultancy said of the 69.7 hours a week the average Brit spends consuming different kinds of media, TV (72 percent) came out top, followed by books (42 percent), music (36 percent) and the Internet (35 percent). The study also revealed print advertisements are more trusted than those online, with 59 percent of consumers paying the greatest attention to print advertising in magazines and 56 percent giving more attention to ads in newspapers compared with any type of online advertising.

Google's Schmidt says don’t expect a rescue

2009-01-08T09:21:00.000-06:00

In a new interview in Fortune magazine by Adam Lashinsky, Google CEO Eric Schmidt reiterates his affection for newspapers but says he doesn't foresee Google buying one. The company, however, continues to look for ideas to help save the industry, he said.

When weary of being merry, there's always Facebook

2009-01-05T13:51:00.002-06:00

Being bored by visiting relatives, tardiness in sending holiday greetings and bad weather may all have contributed to Facebook seeing its highest traffic stats ever on Christmas Eve, suggests Heather Hopkins of Hitwise. Of all U.S. Internet visits logged that day, 2.18 percent were to Facebook pages. Bad weather in some of its hottest U.S. markets might have kept people indoors, but in the United Kingdom, numbers were even higher, with Facebook visits accounting for 4.65 percent of all traffic there.

Report: For ad engagement, YouTube beats TV

2008-12-19T11:42:00.001-06:00

YouTube users are 1.5 times more attentive and engaged in advertising than TV viewers, according to research conducted in partnership with General Motors Europe, Motorola, media agency MindShare and the Online Testing Exchange. An article on New Media Age says the research used eye tracking and biometric data to reveal the brand impact of YouTube ads. The popular video sharing site can also allow access to elusive audiences like young men and infrequent TV viewers. Motorola's brand metrics increased by four times and GM Europe's metrics rose three-fold when YouTube impressions were combined with TV.

'Digital influencers' take their cues from (drum roll): Old media

2008-12-17T14:39:00.003-06:00

Global communications firm MS&L says its research shows most "digital influencers" rely on magazines, newspapers, TV, and radio as initial sources, going online only later. Digital is the future, MS&L's Renee Wilson told AdAge, but "traditional media still has the capability to spark word-of-mouth." The study proves marketing campaigns can't be digital-only efforts, she said. The study explored how those who take to the Internet to try to influence consumer opinion on environmental, beauty and health issues go about their business.

Pew study: A more connected world not necessarily a more humane one

2008-12-15T11:48:00.000-06:00

The next decade will see millions of people around the world acquiring new Internet access via mobile phones. A survey of Internet leaders, activists and analysts shows disagreement about whether this will yield more social tolerance and other positive impacts. The Pew Internet & American Life Project study respondents predicted the transparency of people and organizations will increase, but that will not necessarily assure greater personal integrity, social tolerance, or forgiveness. Technology is expanding the potential for hate, bigotry and terrorism as well.