Online editions are complementary
According to a research of the Audit Bureau of Circulations, online editions of english newspapers don’t cannibalize the copies sold at the newsstands. The reader appear to go online to know more about what he has already read in the print edition, instead.
ABC’s data show that the majority of the unique users of the online edition of the Times come from abroad. Only 33% of users are from UK.
Source: PRnoticias
ps: I couldn’t find the entire study. If you can, please link it in a comment. Thanks!
I think it’s time for publisher to stop blaming readers for going online instead of buying their copy, and start investing in crossmedia to gain new readers. Online editions are not second class editorial products! Especially, if they benefit of high quality and accuracy that belogs to the ‘editorial giants’…
Agosto 21, 2007 alle 9:12 am
Considering the actual quality of the online versions of some mainstream media (at least here in italy i.e. repubblica.it) blaming them for stealing readers from the printed versions is pretty pretentious and bordering on the offensive for the readers…
M
Agosto 21, 2007 alle 11:24 am
The low quality of online newspapers is due to the fact that publishers and media managers don’t invest in them. They have the impression of waisting money and losing print readers because they’re giving the same content “for free”.
But it’s not true.
Just an example: The New York Times, one of the more conservative newspapers I know, has a huge website with respective online traffic. Do you think their readers stopped buying the print edition? No.
The nytimes’ reader profile in 1999 (sorry for old data) was an american citizen who visited the website 3.2 times a month for 40 minutes each session and lived outside New York City.
The New York Times is a local newspaper and the fact that its online readers are outside New York area means its managers achieved their goal: gain new readers niches.