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). |
Online Readership | -Similar to print (education and income) |
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.”
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