Wall Street

Hitwise: Newspapers And Magazines Face More Dynamic, Complex Landscape As They Transition Online

Internet Breaks Down Geographic Legacies

NEW YORK, June 1, 2005 The Web is undeniably one of the most important variables as newspapers and other print media consider re-inventing themselves amidst stagnant and sometimes declining circulation. As print-news organizations embrace the Internet, new online research suggests a competitive landscape where customer acquisition and churn is heavily intertwined with other news and content sites, search engines and e-mail.
According to Hitwise, the worlds leading online competitive intelligence service, 26.2 percent of all visits to Web sites in its News & Media Print category originated from another news site (both print and non-print affiliated) in the four weeks ending May 21, 2005. In addition, 18.8 percent of visits to print-affiliated news sites came directly from search engines and directories, 9.0 percent from entertainment sites, and 7.2 percent from Web e-mail services.

While print-news sites receive significant traffic from other news sites, they also lose more visitors (25.8 percent) to them versus any other site category. Other top categories that visitors of print-news sites leave to include: Entertainment (10.6 percent); Business and Finance (9.8 percent); and Lifestyle (7.4 percent).

Brand equity, quality content and a rich experience are as important as ever, said Bill Tancer, vice president of research, Hitwise. But as print-news organizations embrace digital, they must grasp the highly competitive and spontaneous nature of Internet news consumption

Internet Breaks Down Geographic Legacies

While the audience reach of print-news, particularly newspapers, historically is limited to a titles core geographic location, the Internet is breaking down that barrier. This phenomenon is especially noticeable among the big daily newspapers with heavy national focus. For example, the New York Times www.nytimes.com received 72.2 percent of its U.S. traffic from visitors outside of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut in the four weeks ending May 21, 2005. The Washington Posts www.washingtonpost.com received 68.6 percent of its U.S. traffic from visitors outside of Virginia, Maryland and Washington, D.C. The San Francisco Chronicles www.sfgate.com and the Los Angeles Times www.latimes.com received 50.4 percent and 43.84 percent, respectively, of their traffic from outside of California.

The Internet is also breaking down the geographic barriers of more regional and local newspapers. For example, the Philadelphia Inquirers www.philly.com received 45 percent of its visitors from outside of Pennsylvania and New Jersey. The Houston Chronicles www.chron.com received 36.7 percent of its visitors from outside of Texas. And while 46 percent of visitors to the Detroit Free Presss www.freep.com hailed from Michigan, its interesting to note that even the faraway states of Florida, California, Texas, New York and Georgia contributed fully 18 percent of its visitors.

Arguably, small and regional newspapers can be most competitive by focusing on their local markets, said Tancer. However, as the data on the Detroit Free Press and others indicate, online distribution channels still can have significant appeal to customers outside of their core local markets. Local and regional newspapers should take note of this phenomenon when developing their online strategies, and consider such factors as national interest in major local stories, their utility as reference content, as well as ties to travelers and former residents.

Newspapers Disparate Digital Footprints

Varying interactive strategies appear to be causing great disparity among different newspapers ratio of online traffic versus their respective print circulation. Among the most interesting comparisons is between The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, the second and third largest daily newspapers (by offline circulation). Among the *top 20 highest circulation newspapers, The New York Times has the highest ratio of Web site traffic to print circulation, while the Wall Street Journal ranks 18. In fact, The New York Times online-to-offline ratio is tenfold that of The Wall Street Journal.

The online-to-offline ratio does not indicate success one way or the other, but it does give insight into the audience nuances associated with paid versus ad-supported content models, said Tancer. While the Wall Street Journal charges for most of its content, it will be interesting to see how the mostly free New York Times fairs in light of its decision to start charging for some of its online content.

*Methodology

Hitwise conducted its online-to-offline newspaper circulation analysis by comparing its April 2005 U.S. Internet Market Share Data to the Audit Bureau of Circulations ranking of the top 20 newspapers according to largest reported circulation (ABC's FAS-FAX ending March 31, 2005; http://www.accessabc.com/reader/top150.htm). Hitwise is not affiliated with the Audit Bureau of Circulations.

For inquiries contact: Lizzie Babarczy (212) 380-2910; press@hitwise.com

About Hitwise:

Hitwise is the worlds leading online competitive intelligence service. Each day, Hitwise monitors how more than 25 million Internet users interact with over 500,000 websites across 160 industry categories.

By monitoring more people, more websites, more often, Hitwise provides marketers with timely and actionable marketing insights on how their online presence compares to competitive websites. Companies use this information to maximize the return on their online investment, in efforts such as search marketing, affiliate programs, online advertising, visitor segmentation, content development and lead generation.

Hitwise collects Internet usage information via a combination of ISP data partnerships and opt-in mega panels, and complies with local and international privacy legislation as audited by PricewaterhouseCoopers. Founded in 1997, Hitwise is a privately held company, headquartered in New York City and operates in the US, UK, Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong and Singapore.

More information about Hitwise is available at www.hitwise.com.

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