Comments on: Do Newspapers Count Online Readers Fairly?

By: Craig Saunders

Craig Saunders — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 01:09:42 +0000

It’s a fair point, but there are a few problems with it. Publishers and ad managers are concerned with the number of readers who see the ads in the paper. Therefore, shared copies equate to more people seeing the paper and the ads, and thus justification for charging advertisers more money.

When it comes to online, yes, they might be missing the non-cookie crowd. But do the readers getting the material on a feed see the ads that would appear on a magazine’s or newspaper’s website? Do the people only skimming headlines in aggregate see them? From an advertising perspective, those readers are pretty much irrelevant.

That said, those of us who write the stories would probably like to see them counted.

By: Apples and oranges? « For Samford Crimson journalists

Apples and oranges? « For Samford Crimson journalists — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 00:37:31 +0000

[...] on to another reader. Conversely there’s a downplaying of statistics for online news sites. Amy Gahran picks up where Dan Thornton starts and runs with it: Thornton suggests that if your newspaper [...]

By: Apples and oranges? at JMC 352

Apples and oranges? at JMC 352 — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 00:35:22 +0000

By: Dan Thornton

Dan Thornton — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 20:15:26 +0000

Wow! Thanks… I’m almost speechless (typeless?).

I think the answer, as much as I can establish, is to look at trends for your online/offline readerships, use the distinct on and offline revenue and audience figures to have an idea of when revenue in particular is in the same ballpark, and to be looking at all those figures in the context of totals for internet usage, and competitor figures (Including those sites who are competing for the attention of your reader, even if they’re not a direct competitor in terms of content).

That’s about as far as I’ve got so far, anyway!