Newspapers still attracting some audiences

In light of the class discussion about the premature claims of the death of newspapers, a new study done for the newspaper industry by Scarborough Research emphasizes the quality (rather than quantity) of newspaper readers.  Highlighted findings include

• 71% of adults have read a newspaper or visited a newspaper website in the previous week
• Newspapers reach highly educated readers (85% of adults with post-graduate education read newspapers or visit newpaper websites)
• Newspapers reach women professionals and managers (81% of women in professions or in managerial positions with incomes over $100K)
• Certain shoppers have high readership levels (those who spend over $500 on jewelry, women's clothes, and women's shoes, for instance)

Another study, from ComScore, provides further details on visitors to newspaper websites, also touts high readership levels (visits).

• Over 60% of all adult Internet users visited newspaper websites last quarter
• Around 73% of individuals making over $100K a year visit newspaper websites
• Newspaper websites average 4.1 billion page views a month, spending nearly 3.4 billion minutes

There's two ways of looking at this - first, that as the newspaper trade group concluded, newspaper readers and visitors to newspaper websites are audiences that advertisers value; alternatively, you can interpret the need to identify fairly narrowly defined demographic groups (professional women making $100K who shop at Macy's) over an extended time frame (in previous week or month, depending on the statistic) to find high readership levels as suggesting that the overall daily readership levels aren't that great.

Scarborough Report press release
ComScore Report press release

Online video cuts into TV time

A new study from Frank N. Magid Associates suggests the shifting habits of video viewing.  Some quick stats:

• 49% watch online video daily
• 48% plan to increase their use of online video this year
• 66% of online video viewers report this has cut into their TV time
• While 58% indicate that they do other things around the house when TV ads come on, only 26% turn away from online ads.

"Online Viewers Decrease TV Time, Up Video Watching," Online Media Daily

Internet Runs Out of Addresses (finally)

The rapid growth and diffusion of addressable technology often faces a point where you reach the limit of the original address system.  This happened in telephones some years ago, as many area codes reached capacity, and the industry responded by changing how some numbers were assigned (opening up new opportunities for area codes).  To illustrate, since I've been in Knoxville, our area code has changed twice.
For the last few years, the rapid growth of the Internet has meant that the original addressing system (known as IPv4) had an upper limit (about 4.3 billion unique addresses) that was going to be reached eventually.  The administrative group overseeing the addressing system ICANN) has developed a new standard (IPv6) that will deal with the problem, at least for a while.  However, for that to work, the network system needs to be able to switch to that newer system, which most systems and equipment aren't designed to do.  Google estimated that less than half a percent of Google visitors would be capable of utilizing IPv6 addresses.

Still, no need to run out in a panic and grab addresses - in this case "runs out" means that ICANN has allocated the final chunks of available Internet addresses (tens of millions each) to various regional associations to use.  But it does suggest the need to push for a transition to equipment and software that can handle the new system.

"Internet Runs Out of IP Addresses", Information Week

Broadcasters report growth on digital side

The online/digital advertising side of broadcast stations is growing faster than traditional revenue sources.  While small compared to on-air advertising (online now accounts for an average of 6% of total revenues for television stations), last year's growth rate of 14% overshadows those of more traditional sources. 
A report by Borrell Associates found that television stations earned an average of $750,000 from digital and online advertising, while the best performing stations saw revenues of $5 to $11 million.  Further, television stations increased their share of the total online/digital advertising market to over 10%, with $1.4 billion in online ad revenues in 2010.

"Broadcast TV Grows Digital Biz, Spikes 14%," MediaDailyNews

AOL buys Huffington Post - What does it mean? (Updated)

Last week saw the announcement of AOL's acquisition of the Huffington Post for $315 million, about seven times the Post's estimated annual revenues, and more than three times its last public valuation of $100 million in 2008.  Does this reflect the growing strength of online news, the continuing decline of the media giants, or something different?
AOL has been struggling to find a new identity since the end of its disastrous merger with Time/Warner, and has seen declining revenues in recent years, and has yet to see the breakout hit in its myriad offerings and acquisitions.  Reports suggest that AOL was looking for journalistic credibility - if so, the acquisition of a site more known for left-leaning political commentary than straight news looks like another blunder by AOL.  It might be a better move if the goal is, as AOL's chief, Tim Armstrong, said that the deal is part of a long-term strategy to reach "an influence audience." 
The deal is certainly advantageous for the Huffington Post's founder, Ariana Huffington, who will now oversee all of AOL's content (including Engadget, Mapquest, Patch, etc.) and gets to cash out, big-time.  One long-term question is whether she can successfully oversee such a broad range of content and services profitably. Perhaps more critically, will the Huffington Post's (mostly unpaid) writers continue to contribute freely, now that it's owned by one of those "money-grubbing big corporations" they rail against.  Will they now want to be paid (which will upset the current business model), or just find somewhere else to go with their material?
So is this another bad business move on the part of AOL, an effort by big business to influence public and political debate, or the future of media content?  What do you think?

UPDATE:  Sources report that Arianna Huffington is pulling $18 million from the sale, and more than $4 million salary with her new position at AOL. And from one pundit - "profiting off the unpaid labor of her digital sweatshop" (as noted above, most Huffington Post contributors are unpaid)..


Sources and for more information, see:

"AOL-HuffPost: All The News Fit to Merge," Business Insider
"AOL+HuffP0: A Quick Trip to the Future?" Online Spin
"You Can Make Friends, But AOL Wants to Influence People," Online Media Daily

Understanding the Participatory News Consumer

A news item reminded me of a recent Pew Study in the area of online news.  In mousing around, I found the full report from the Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project and Project for Excellence in Journalism.  Some interesting results:

• 92% of Americans use multiple platforms (media) for news
• 33% of cell phone owners access news on their cell phones
• 28% of internet users have customized their home page to include news
• 37% of internet users have contributed to the creation of news, shared news stories with others, or commented on news reports.
• 55% of Americans think it's easier to keep up with the news today than it was five years ago
• 70% of Americans feel the amount of news and information available various sources is "overwhelming"

Some of these results suggest that the internet is not just expanding outlets and increasing competition, but is changing the nature of news consumption and dissemination.

Pew press release on study
Report's Summary of Findings - Online News survey (January 2010)
Download Full Report (pdf)

"Paradox of Choice"

A blog entry by Steve Smith wonders how many people are, or are likely to, "cut the cord" and shift from TV service to getting their TV content via Internet.  He talks about a small experiment where 5 families' regular cable box was replaced by IP-connected boxes (like AppleTV, Roku, Boxee, GoogleTV, Xbox 360).  He reports that most families reacted negatively, largely because cable was always there, but that most of the IPTV experienced delays in downloading, or uncertainty in terms of what to choose to download and watch.  One implication - family TV viewing is still primarily a passive pastime.  Another - in these early stages of development, IPTV serves more as a complement than a substitute.

IPTV Global Forecast Report

The new IPTV Global Forecast released in December shows growth slightly ahead of expectations.   It predicts greatest growth in Europe, where the high level of broadband and limited local outlets, combined with a highly mobile population, creates higher demand for imported signals and targeted content.
The report's executive summary is here.

Do you want ads with that?

A research study out of the University of Connecticut suggests people prefer interactive ads on an iPad to static ads in print magazines. (Research report here),  It's a small sample of younger adults, and it's not clear that the results clearly distinquished between the positive effects of iPad vs print, or static vs. interactive advertising. 
Still, this should encourage potential advertisers thinking about buying spots in digital versions of magazines.

Will E-Books Boom?

A Yankee Group forecast predicts that U.S. e-book sales will grow from around $300 million in 2009 to $2.7 billion in 2013.  They suggest growth will be spurred by wider adoption of e-book readers, diffusion of apps for mobile devices, rise of book-based social media, the ability to embed audio and/or video, and the rise of some new business models (for instance, renting of textbooks, annual subscriptions (Sesame Street offers 100 books for $40/yr), and even advertising).
The reports from Amazon sure support this idea - The Kindle is Amazon's best-selling product ever, Amazon has nearly doubled its e-book offerings to 810,000 titles (in December), and they report selling more Kindle e-books than paperbacks last month.
From Online Media Daily story.