Newspapers adapt to the Web

09/05/2000

half of the online newspaper websites show signs of profit or at least breaking even,

Newspaper websites still have few readers in comparison to daily newspaper circulation, but three out of ten websites attract more than 50,000 users per week. Some of the biggest papers have over 100,000 online readers per week.

Just 36 percent of North American newspaper websites are updated more than once a day.

A small number of online newspapers try to develop an original product, and 27 percent conduct their own journalistic initiatives, but three fourths simply lift content from the printed paper and place it online.

Some newspaper executives felt that online readers should have been charged from the beginning, despite the fact that so much information is free on the Web.

Online newspaper departments are smaller than their print equivalents, with 85 percent of Web editorial staffs saying they have five or less on their team. Salary levels for people in this area are greater, not to mention the difficulty in actually finding the staff, according to the report.

The survey was based on responses from 550 newspapers, including 242 in North America. The greatest response came from large newspapers that had already established websites or were preparing to do so.

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Source: NUA Internet Surveys

Date of Article: 09/01/2000