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Regional online traffic compared; Johnston Press comes out top

February 25th, 2010 | 3 Comments | Posted by Judith Townend in Newspapers, Online Journalism, Traffic

I’ve had a little play with today’s Audit Bureau of Circulations Electronic’s (ABCe) six-monthly multi-platform report for July – December 2009 and produced a few graphs.

Johnston Press was top of the traffic charts with 384,016 daily unique browsers – partly thanks to the Scotsman which attracted 86,694 daily browsers on average over the past six months. In second place for daily unique browsers (which ABCe now prioritises over monthly statistics as a better measure of site popularity) came Newsquest with 320,975 browsers. Closely behind, Trinity Mirror, which recorded 287,130. Of the bigger groups, it was Northcliffe in fourth position with 256,123. GMG saw the biggest drop-off overall when period-on-period monthly unique browser figures were compared: -17.8 per cent.

For the next multiplatform report, it could be all change: GMG regional titles will be part of Trinity Mirror, following the sale agreement earlier this month; and the effect of Johnston Press’ pay walls, launched in November may well have kicked in. They seem to have had a limited effect on this period’s statistics, but it’s worth noting that traffic had fallen for the Johnston Press network from 6,985,175 uniques in October to 6,161,875 in December 2009: down by over ten per cent in two months. Traffic had been dropping off since July, however, well before the pay walls were introduced and of course, the group has only rolled out the scheme over a few of its smaller sites so far.  Unfortunately, the trialled sites don’t feature in the individual site break-down.

This chart shows the period-on-period change for each newspaper group, July to end of December 2009. (ie. compared with the previous six months)

Unique daily browsers, by regional newspaper group:

GMG Regional Network

Trinity Mirror

Iliffe News & Media Ltd (note that the largest column is its entire network overall, which includes other sites as well)

Johnston Press

Newsquest

Midlands News

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Editor&Publisher: House-swaps for furloughs

April 3rd, 2009 | No Comments | Posted by Judith Townend in Editors' pick, Journalism, Newspapers

“Furlough House Swap? Sounds like a new reality show. But it’s the brainchild of two Gannett employees who are among thousands in the company facing two furloughs so far this year,” reports the Editor & Publisher.

Furloughhouseswap.com has been launched by two Gannett employees. The idea is that employees on enforced unpaid holidays, or furloghs (or ‘furcation’) can swap houses for the week.

The Twitter tag is #furloughhouseswap.

Full story at this link…

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Huffington Post: Gannett execs net nearly $2 million in bonuses

March 20th, 2009 | No Comments | Posted by Laura Oliver in Editors' pick, Job losses

As Gannett’s US and UK staff at Newsquest prepare to take a week’s unpaid leave, executives at the parent company have been asked to justify bonuses of nearly $2 million in a statement to the Securities and Exchange Commission.

According to the HuffPo report, CEO Craig Dubow will receive $875,000, while four other executives will pocket $300,000, $270,000, $245,000, and $260,000.

Full story at this link…

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US newspaper websites – take a break, time for ‘drastic action’, says petition

February 10th, 2009 | No Comments | Posted by Laura Oliver in Newspapers

UPDATE: A video intro from the petition’s creator TJ Sullivan calling for drastic action by the industry and Journalism.co.uk finds out more from Sullivan himself.

An online petition has been set up calling on US newspapers and the Associated Press to shutdown their websites to non-paying subscribers for a week (July 4-10) and make original news content .

The petition, which currently has 120 signatures, wants to highlight ‘the threat posed to democracy by the loss of professionally staffed and ethically bound American newspapers’.

It is not, the blurb points out, an endorsement of any paid-for access model.

The likelihood of any newspapers heeding this call….? We’ll be speaking to the petition’s organiser to find out their motivation. One signature comes from ‘Ostrich with head in sand’, an unusual moniker.

(Though perhaps Gannett might not be so against it – the publisher could organise its week of unpaid work to fit these dates)

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TheInd.com: ‘Chain reaction’ at the Daily Advertiser in Louisiana

January 22nd, 2009 | No Comments | Posted by Judith Townend in Editors' pick, Newspapers

Over at a US-based local media site, an article from the Independent Weekly. It argues that newspaper owner Gannett has ‘ransacked’ the Daily Advertiser, the daily paper in Lafayette, Louisiana. Here, the the site’s looks at a ‘chain reaction’ impacting on the paper. Full story…

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Gannett Blog: Gannett launches ’single monster site’ for 85 newspapers

January 7th, 2009 | No Comments | Posted by Laura Oliver in Advertising, Editors' pick, Online Journalism
Gannett has begun its trial of ContentOne - a single website for all its US newspaper titles that can be sold to national and local advertisers. Most content on the site will be generated by USA Today, while local titles will add the site to their own and rebrand it with local news and info. Full story...

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Covering media job cuts – staff facing redundancy speak online

December 16th, 2008 | No Comments | Posted by Laura Oliver in Job losses, Jobs, Journalism

Having set up a timeline dedicated to reporting on the sweeping job cuts affecting both senior and junior journalists alike, a trend is emerging for laid-off staff to use blogs, Twitter and other online sites and tools to capture their redundancy.

Reports such as Martin Gee’s set of Flickr images from his last day at the San Jose Mercury give a highly individual picture of how these cuts are being felt on a personal level beyond the redundancy figures and prediction stats.

In the summer, the Columbia Journalism Review started its ‘Parting Thoughts’ series, posting responses from journalists leaving the industry or facing redundancy.

At the Gannett Blog, former Gannett editor Jim Hopkins crowdsourced a blogpost of lay-offs by the publisher, listed by newspaper area – at time of writing redundancies at 72 of Gannett’s 85 US titles affected by the company’s latest round of job cuts were accounted for in Hopkins’ post.

In an open blog post last week, Ryan Carson, co-founder of web application design and events agency Carsonified, used the company’s blog to share his thoughts about staff cuts and give the reasons for making them.

Carson went on to give tips for companies looking to recession-proof their business (points that some commenters on the post argue are common sense no matter what the economic situation).

The Spokesman-Review has used its Daily Briefing blog to cover staff leaving in an equally personal and open way. News of senior staff exiting the paper, such as editor Steve Smith and assistant managing editor Carla Savalli, was broken on the blog and posts have also been penned by outgoing journalists, including Thuy Dzuong:

“Folks, it’s been fun but The layoff list for non-managers has been finalized, and I’m on it.”

Last week Silicon Alley Insider built a ‘real time’-style page to cover lay-offs at parent company Yahoo, updating it as new info came in.

(UPDATE – The Rocky Mountain News has launched iwantmyrocky.com to canvas support for the newspaper)

Despite the sad circumstances, the way in which journalists and media workers are facing redundancy in these examples shows a real engagement with online tools. A personal picture of what is happening to the industry is being documented for future reference by these staff members expressing themselves so openly (and perhaps significantly being ‘allowed’ to express themselves by their past/present employers).

What is more, while they may not hold the answers to the problems currently faced by the media industry, they shed light on how these issues are perceived and felt on the frontline. Something which employers should read and learn from.

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Editor and Publisher: Top US News sites beat Google News for traffic

June 19th, 2008 | No Comments | Posted by Oliver Luft in Editors' pick, Newspapers, Traffic

Several newspaper networks surpassed Google News and achieved more unique traffic in May, according to new data from Nielsen Online.

Editor and Publisher reported that NYTimes.com stood out with 21.3 million unique visitors while Google News gleaned 11.3 million monthly visitors.

Tribune Newspapers and Gannett Newspapers, taken as groups, beat the online behemoth as well.

Yahoo News was the number one current events and global news destination in May with a unique audience of 35.8 million.

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Top US news sites for February

March 20th, 2008 | No Comments | Posted by Oliver Luft in Journalism, Online Journalism, Traffic

Top 50 US news sites for February 2008, according to Nielsen Online.

(Also, have a look at: February Worries Boost News Traffic)

Brand Uniques  (000) Time Per Person (hh:mm:ss)
All Events & Global News 101,336 127:01

CNN Digital Network 37,181 0:40:11
Yahoo! News 35,274 0:23:10
MSNBC Digital Network 34,013 0:29:50
AOL News 21,119 0:36:14
NYTimes.com 18,975 0:33:29
Tribune Newspapers 14,716 0:10:09
Gannett Newspapers 13,998 0:21:28
ABCNEWS Digital Network 12,324 0:09:54
Google News 12,050 0:10:14
WorldNow 10,588 0:13:16
USATODAY.com 10,571 0:14:16
Washingtonpost.com 10,441 0:17:30
Fox News Digital Network 10,177 0:41:10
CBS News Digital Network 9,970 0:09:09
Hearst Newspapers Digital 8,349 0:17:38
McClatchy Network 8,343 0:11:41
IB Websites 7,565 0:11:00
Advance Internet 6,791 0:13:08
BBC News 6,437 0:10:42
Slate 6,261 0:07:29
Gannett Broadcasting 6,174 0:09:18
Topix 6,121 0:06:30
MediaNews Group 5,850 0:12:41
Associated Press 5,353 0:07:03
Cox Newspapers 5,197 0:20:08
Boston.com 4,904 0:07:47
Belo Television 4,827 0:05:58
Fox Television Stations 4,758 0:06:06
New York Post Holdings 4,605 0:09:12
NewsMax.com 4,054 0:10:35
TheHuffingtonPost.com 3,749 0:08:04
Freedom Interactive 3,613 0:07:51
Daily News Online Edition 3,563 0:06:46
Belo Newspapers 3,476 0:05:52
Drudgereport.com 3,445 0:59:49
Guardian.co.uk 3,391 0:02:49
Daily Mail 3,364 0:09:11
Telegraph 2,990 0:03:39
Times Online 2,852 0:06:37
Community News Network 2,846 0:10:40
Swift Newspapers 2,750 0:05:42
Scripps News Group 2,713 0:18:00
Netscape 2,709 0:11:03
Breitbart.com 2,674 0:09:20
Int Herald Tribune 2,598 0:02:02
Fisher Interactive Network 2,526 0:05:08
Seattle Times Network 2,245 0:11:03
Philly.com 2,204 0:04:52
Chicago Sun-Times 2,203 0:08:29
Star Tribune 2,108 0:25:08

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Newsquest attracts 4.8m unique users in 2007

February 4th, 2008 | No Comments | Posted by Laura Oliver in Newspapers, Online Journalism, Traffic

According to results release by its parent company Gannett, Newsquest’s network of newspaper websites in the UK recorded 4.8 million unique users last year.

While this is a rise from last May’s ABCe figures – which showed a figure of around 4.5 million unique users to the sites – the numbers seem low, given the portfolio includes over 180 websites, boasting such titles as The Herald in Glasgow, The Press in York and Bradford’s Telegraph & Argus.

Are the numbers smaller than expected? – I’m trying to get hold of someone at Newsquest and I’ll let you know the response.

Update – No one at Newsquest could give me an official comment, as the figures were released by Gannett and not them. One contact, however, did point out to me that whatever the level of traffic announced the fact that Newsquest participates in the ABCe audit gives a reliable point of reference.

Newsquest, Northcliffe, Kent Online and the Midlands News Association are the only regional news publishers to have their sites audited – where are the other players?

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