Newspaper site cannibalize print readership

Newspaper Web sites are starting to have a negative impact on newspaper readership and sales, according to new study from Belden Associates. The study, which surveyed 8,801 users of five different newspaper Web sites for the first and second quarter of 2003, found that readership levels dropped 14 percent, single-copy sales dropped 4 percent and subscriptions dropped 2 percent.

"Several factors may be in play here. In particular, sites are doing a better job of delivering the news over the web and visitors are doing a better job of getting what they want from newspaper sites. Here we may be seeing that visitors are coming to 'trust' that what they see on the web is what they will see in the newspaper."

These numbers may indicate "a shift in behaviors," Belden's Greg Harmon says. In the past, Belden has found that sites don't impact subscriptions significantly and may actually help single-copy sales. In this chart you can see the change over time:

	Q1 2001 4 papers N=8,123	Q2 2002 7 papers N=13,952	Q3/4 2002 3 papers N=4,827	Q1/2 2003 5 papers N=8,801
Subscription Starts vs Stops	+3%	0%	+1%	-2%
No Effect	84%	90%	89%	90%
Single-copy: Buy More v. Less	+5%	+10%	+10%	-4%
No Effect	70%	78%	72%	80%
Read More v. Less	+17%	0%	-1%	-14%
No Effect	55%	73%	69%	73%

Note, though, that the data still indicate that sites have little overall effect on print behaviors. And also note that the these are not national samples and that each survey had a different group of newspaper sites and different sample sizes.

Jun 23, 2003 | E-MAIL | SAVE | PRINT | PERMALINK | DISCUSS(0)

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