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Within Reach: A Look at Newspapers and their Websites

Despite claims to the contrary, research indicates significant overlap between print and online newspaper readers. According to a recent study, on average, only 6% of a newspaper’s audience is online exclusively; approximately 80% is print exclusive, while 14% of the total audience (and 70% of the online audience), reads both the newspaper and the publications website.

Content

How much audience duplication is there between a newspapers’ print and online versions? “I believe the audiences are completely different,” says Orlando Nieves, general manager at Centro Tampa, The Tampa Tribune’s Hispanic venture. “Our website was never meant to be an online version of the newspaper. We launched it as a tool to stay informed on what's happening back home. Therefore, it has more Latin American content, while the newspaper concentrates more on local stories and what's happening here. The lengths of stories are different and so is the selection of content. We see online as a complement to traditional print media. Even the advertising needs to be different in order for it to be relevant within the media being used.”

What Factors Increase Print and Online Readership?

High Newspaper Audience Rating (print)

-Age

– Income

– Education

-Cold Weather Markets (e.g. Northeast tend to have higher readership than warm weather markets, e.g. Southern California).
– Small communities with little media competition

Online Readership

-Similar to print (education and income)
– Young
– Internet-savvy
– Predominance of High-Tech employment opportunities

Low duplication between Print and Online

– Uniqueness of content (e.g. Sports).

– Leadership in Global/Financial News (e.g. New York Times, The Wall Street Journal)

– Strong verticals (Politics, Washington websites, Automotive, Detroit).

– Travel Destination (Orlando Sentinel’s website gets many visitors from out of Orlando)

– Large population of Emmigrants (Latin American websites)

Source: Scarborough and Portada

However, for most newspaper websites, duplication in audience between print and online versions is very 
high, a recent Scarborough Research study suggests. “There is an enormous amount of duplication between
print and online readers,” Gary Meo, SVP of print and digital media services at Scarborough Research, tells
Portada.

Scarborough Research recently published a report about the combined print and online penetration of major newspapers in the top 50 U.S. markets. “On average, there is a very small percentage of people that read the newspaper solely online,” Meo notes. 
 

Reach over Total Miami Population

 

Reach over Miami Hispanic Population

 

 

Total %

Race/Hispanic

Total %

Total

100

Hispanic

100

Daily newspapers

 

Daily newspapers

 

El Nuevo Herald

6

El Nuevo Herald

14

Diario Las Américas

2

Diario Las Américas

3

Sunday newspapers

 

Sunday newspapers

 

El Nuevo Herald

7

El Nuevo Herald

15

Diario Las Américas

2

Diario Las Américas

4

Websites visited past 7 days

 

Websites visited past 7 days

 

ElNuevoHerald.com

2

ElNuevoHerald.com

3

ElSentinel.com

*

ElSentinel.com

*

LaPalmaInteractivo.com

*

LaPalmaInteractivo.com

*

Weekly Print Audience

 

Weekly Print Audience

 

Diario Las Americas

4

Diario Las Americas

9

El Nuevo Herald

13

El Nuevo Herald

26

Combined Print and Online Audience

 

Combined Print and Online Audience

 

El Nuevo Herald

13

El Nuevo Herald

27

 

 

 

 

Note: * means below 1%

 

 

 

Source: Scarborough Research 

According to a recent study, on average, only 6% of a newspaper’s audience is online exclusively; approximately 80% is print exclusive, while 14% of the total audience (and 70% of the online audience), reads both the newspaper and the publications website.

According to Meo, this also means that print’s reach is much higher. Print provides the most of the reach,” he notes. “Anyone who says that print is dead is dead-wrong.”

 

Related Articles:  Newspaper websites offer advertisers unique advantages(March, 2006)

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