More Research & Studies

• ONA Digital Journalism Credibility Study: The good news is Internet users believe online news is about as credible as news from more traditional sources (13 percent cite the Net as their most trusted source for news). The bad news is journalists themselves have less respect for their online counterparts.

• Survey: Web Doesn't Affect Print Readership: Newspaper Web sites rarely affect delivery frequency of the print edition, but have a positive impact on single-copy purchases, according to a survey conducted by Belden Associates of Dallas.

• Journalism Interactive: New Attitudes, Tools and Techniques Change Journalism's Landscape: U.S. newspapers report dramatic changes in the way they define and cover news and even how they view their mission, a new survey of the nation's top editors reveals. Key among the findings is that editors report a sharply increased appetite for more two-way connections with readers. Nine of 10 editors surveyed also say the future of the industry depends on even more interactivity with readers.

• WebWatch Survey - What Users Want: Fifty-nine percent of users say that it is very important that advertising be clearly labeled and distinguished from news and information, according to a Consumer WebWatch study.

• Pay for Content? News sites considering charging for content should pay heed: a study from the Pew Internet & American Life Project reinforces beliefs that few people are willing to pay for access to Web sites. About 17 percent of Internet users surveyed have been asked to pay to access Web sites they used to see for free, but of those, only 12 percent agreed to pay for access.

• Paid Online Content Grows: This study from the Online Publishers Association says consumers are showing a new willingness to pay for content online. The study, though, found that only a handful of businesses benefit from these purchases -- mostly business and financial news sites. Content sales hit $300 million in the first quarter of 2002 — nearly half the total for all of the previous year.

• A Profile of Online Newspaper Consumers: Digital Edge report for the Newspaper Association of America by Rusty Coats of MORI Research.

• Stanford/Poynter eyetrack study: First major analysis of how users read online news.

• Reading Online News: A Wichita State University study found that readers prefer news pages with summaries of stories over ones with just headline links.

• Web Sites Boost Print Circulation: Rather than cannibalizing print usage, Web sites are effective vehicles for increasing traditional circulation and readership, according to a study by Belden Associates.

• Cannibalization? Au contraire: Publishing consultants Pressflex found that French newspapers with Web sites are actually doing better circulation-wise than those without. "The Web taps potential readers untouched by traditional print sales channels," Pressflex said.

• Broadband Users Get News Online: More broadband users get their news online (46%) than get it from newspapers (40%) on an average day, a study by Pew Internet & American Life found.
• Strong Web Newspaper Growth: Newspaper sites are growing faster than the rest of the Web in some of the biggest markets. Online newspaper audience growth outpaced total Net user growth in seven of the 10 largest U.S. markets over the past six months, according to a new study by comScore Media Metrix.
• The Value of Loyal Audiences: Advertising on high-quality content sites outperforms industry norms on every measure of brand awareness and persuasion, according to this study by the Online Publisher's Association.
• Net Grows as News Medium: Use of the Internet as a news source is approaching, and in some casessurpassing the use of traditional media, according to a recent study conducted for MSNBC.com by Market Facts Inc. The online news medium has the greatest penetration among media users in the workplace, with 31 percent utilizing the Internet for news and information.
• Impact of Sept. 11 on News Consumption: Public's habits largely
  unchanged, according to study by The Pew Research Center for the People
  and the Press. Report includes interesting statistics on online news
  consumption:  25 percent of Americans go online for news at least three
  times a week, for example.

• Online usability studies: Priceless findings from Jakob Nielson.

• Local Web News: Case Study of Nine Local Broadcast Internet News Operations: A study by the Radio and Television News Directors Foundation that examined nine local broadcast news Web operations to find out what local television and radio stations are doing online and which editorial and business strategies are proving effective.

• Online newspaper subscription services: A new study by the New Media Federation and Borrell & Associates looks at the various subscription services offered by online newspapers, and suggests that it's better to charge for specific services or content than for general Web access. The report, which is only available to New Media Federation and Newspaper Association of America members, includes a useful chart showing how 16 newspaper-affiliated sites charge non-print subscribers to view content.

• ePolitics: The 2000 presidential campaign on the Internet: This study of online coverage of a presidential election from the Committee of Concerned Journalists found that many of the most popular online portals do not live up to the promise of the Internet as a gateway to new, unfiltered and diverse information about politics.

• Report on editorial-advertising roles in online newspaper staffs: This January 2000 study shows how several newspaper companies' Web staffs handle the divide between editorial and advertising. Among the smaller papers, the wall between the two is quite permeable. It's less so among the larger papers' sites.

May 22, 2000 | E-MAIL | SAVE | PRINT | PERMALINK