Knight Digital Media Center: Journalism in a 24/7 World

Project for Excellence in Journalism

Amy Mitchell, Deputy Directorwww.journalism.org

1. The audience for online news is becoming more complicated

Usage is shifting

• Total audience has leveled off

• Frequency is up: 37% report going online yesterday (PIP, March ’07)

• Video is a big growth area: 44% watch weekly, up from 24% in ’06 (OPA, 6/07)

Audience Metrics Challenged

• More demand for audited numbers

• Total time versus page views

• Hitwise as a new metrics player

2. Web so far has been developed for immediacy & interactivity more

than depth

February ‘07 PEJ audit of 38 news websites:

• Customization

• User participation

• Multi-media use

• Depth of content

• Editorial Branding

• Revenue streams

Two areas most developed:

• Editorial branding

• Customization

Area least developed:

• Depth of Information– Links to original documents– Background material– Additional coverage

• 18 sites earned the lowest marks for depth, it was 2nd lowest tier another 16

Google - extreme depth but limits:

• 900+ links

• No synthesis

• No Selection process

• Repeat wire stories/ outdated accounts

3. Websites as accidental destinations

• Its not about the loyal customer anymore, but the hunter and gatherer.

New York Times special sections:

“What wasn’t anticipated was the explosion in how much of our traffic would be generated by Google, by Yahoo an some others,” Vivian Schiller, Sr. VP of NYTimes.com (Sept. 18 NYT)

Murdoch uses same reasoningWashingtonpost.com: 66% of traffic from

portal links

4. Economics:

The problem is not demand but revenue

Total Ad Growth is slowing faster than expected

• Q1 ’07: total ad revenue growth = 26%

• Q1 ’06: Total ad revenue growth = 38% (IAB)

Old ad model blown apart

• Do advertisers still need a middle man?

• Advertisers seem as puzzled as news organizations.

Outlets

Audiences

Advertisers

2nd Revenue Stream: Revenue from Users

• Charging for sites not working

• New possibility: Cable model– Charging for content through fees people pay

to providers or aggregators

5. Producers of original news hold the Power

• Way people access news is flexible

• Original news & analysis grow in importance

6. Producers have growing competition

Across 3 user-generated news sites, 70% of sources were non-traditional media.

The Playing Field

• Legacy news sites • Ex-Journalists

• Online only news producers– Less, formal, more nice, less expensive to produce

• Citizen Journalists/websites– Wider mix of content, less expensive

• Newsmakers themselves– Subjects of news also making the news themselves

Newsmakers Sidestep Media

• Candidate web sites (May ’07 study)

• Campaign announcements online

• Social networking (16 sites)

• Grassroots action (12 sites)

• Issues pages

• Lacking: voter registration ; comparisons

7. The “Accidental Audience” and multiple players suggests

rethinking content to emphasize unique, franchise content that is

deep and can last.

• Immediacy is less important.– “Commodity News” is everywhere.

• Unique, franchise news has added value– Web-site study– Chicago Trib.; St. Pete Times

• Brands have most value if they are deep and timeless.

– Blogs threads: Like a game of Six degrees of Separation from Kevin Bacon

– Election night coverage: Best sites offered key results and deep veins of raw data

• Open up the walls. – Website audit: Amazed at the lack of links to outside

sources. Particularly inside main stories.– Bivings Group Study: Many websites are “’relatively

unwilling’ to link their sites to other sources and that papers continue to keep some content behind virtual walls.” (newsandtech.com, 9-7,2007)

News Producers

Immediacy V

Depth & Longevity

Branded Content

V Commodity News

Open up The vacuum