Brand Republic: FT withdraws from ABCe audits for web traffic

In the same month that it launched its own metric for measuring readers across print, online and other media, the Financial Times has officially withdrawn from the monthly audit of UK newspapers’ web traffic conducted by the Audit Bureau of Circulations Electronic (ABCe). It’s been some time since the FT website’s figures were included in the monthly stats – listed as N/A below a print circulation figure in the monthly multi-platform reports issued by the auditor.

Says a spokesperson:

The FT no longer participates in ABCes as volume traffic measures have become less relevant to our advertisers and clients. We do not intend to compete on volume, rather the quality of our registered and subscriber readership.

Full story at this link…

Similar posts:

• MediaGuardian: ABCe audits under review
• Malcolm Coles: How US traffic is vital for UK newspaper sites
• Guardian debuts six-monthly ABCe figures for regional websites
• MediaPost: Heavy newspaper readers also turning online in US, says survey
• @SoE: Guardian reporter: planning to use Hitwise figures in Telegraph marketing again?

Regional online traffic compared; Johnston Press comes out top

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

Similar posts:

• ABCes: Independent.co.uk records biggest increase in daily browsers
• Trinity Mirror reports 10 per cent drop in advertising revenue
• Johnston Press’ ad revenues feel effects of recession
• IFNC update: CN Group, STV, ITN and Bauer in race for news consortia pilots
• Newspaper Society: Round-up of record web traffic for local media titles covering riots

NMA: How pay walls could affect the ABCes

How will website traffic measurement be affected by the introduction of pay walls? Suzanne Bearne considers the impact on UK newspaper websites audited by the Audit Bureau of Circulations Electronic (ABCe).

Full story at this link…

Similar posts:

• MediaGuardian: ABCe audits under review
• Media Week: Times website loses 1.2m readers
• Brand Republic: FT withdraws from ABCe audits for web traffic
• @SoE: Guardian reporter: planning to use Hitwise figures in Telegraph marketing again?
• Guardian debuts six-monthly ABCe figures for regional websites

The Media Blog: What’s the value of a journalist that Twitters?

Chie Elliott looks into the relationship between journalists that use Twitter and the Audit Bureau of Circulations Electronic (ABCe) results for their respective titles in this post.

“Media people are using Twitter as an instrument for sharing and crowdsourcing, for networking and live-reporting. A journalist with a popular blog or social media presence can only be positive for the publication’s brand. If Twitter is a waste of work time, time has never been so well wasted. Furthermore, if a journalist is creating content while simultaneously publicising the content carrier, isn’t that doing two jobs for the price of one?”

via The Media Blog: Are journalists who tweet value for money?.

Similar posts:

• The Media Blog: Mail falls for fake Steve Jobs tweet
• Next Generation Journalist: the portfolio career
• Tool of the week for journalists – WhenToTweet
• Ten things every journalism student should know
• 10,000 Words: It helps to remember the ‘person’ in ‘personal branding’

Journalism Daily: Council newspapers, INMA/OPA event and more editorial outsourcing

Journalism.co.uk is trialling a new service via the Editors’ Blog: a daily round-up of all the content published on the Journalism.co.uk site.

We hope you’ll find it useful as a quick digest of what’s gone on during the day (similar to our e-newsletter) and to check that you haven’t missed a posting.

We’ll be testing it out for a couple of weeks, so you can subscribe to the feed for the Journalism Daily here.

Let us know what you think – all feedback much appreciated.

News and features:

• IPC titles hold steady in new ABCe report
• Comment: ‘Council newspapers: a disaster for democracy’, Mark Wallace, campaign director, TaxPayers’ Alliance
• INMA and OPA Europe partner to discuss future of news media
• Liz Nickels leaves assistant editor position to go freelance

Ed’s picks:

• City Pages: When a reporter leaves – who owns the Twitter account?
• Online Journalism Blog: Help map local blogs in the UK
• Media Release: Schibsted titles to livestream Norwegian football matches
• paidContent:UK: Getty Images VP on finding business models for cit-j photos
• Cplash: Thank you message from Laura Ling

Tip of the day:

• Twitter tips for freelancers

#FollowJourn:

• @rachcolling/freelancer

On the Editors’ Blog:

• Sheffield photojournalism students refuse exam retake
• Pagemasters editorial outsourcing spreads to the US and Canada
• Sports section revamp for Northcliffe – building a sporting community
• #bnewstip: Broadcast journalism tips from @newsleader

Similar posts:

• Flickr/Getty deal brings new revenue opportunity for photographers
• Getty teams up with Yahoo to tap into Flickr users
• News agencies suspend Australian cricket coverage over online coverage terms
• Journalism Daily: Changing business models for photographers and branding for journalists
• Beatblogging.org: Globe and Mail/Reuters using Twitter photos of China riots

Malcolm Coles: How US traffic is vital for UK newspaper sites

This is a cross-post from Malcolm Coles’ personal website. You can read other posts by Coles on the Journalism.co.uk Editors’ Blog at this link.

The latest figures for UK users from the audited ABCes together with Compete‘s figures for American site usage show how USA traffic is vital for UK newspaper sites.

On average, US traffic is 36.8 per cent of the UK traffic (i.e. there is just over one US visitor for every 3 UK visitors). The figure for the Telegraph is slightly higher (44.5 per cent) and for the Mail it’s a massive 62.5 per cent.

These figures are all for June 2009. The FT wasn’t audited in June’s ABCes. The Express isn’t in the ABCes.

They are further proof that the Mail’s success in the June ABCes was driven by American searches for Michael Jackson’s kids.

Similar posts:

• How the Guardian and Telegraph overtook the Mail in latest ABCe traffic report
• Malcolm Coles: Michael Jackson’s kids made the Daily Mail the most visited UK newspaper site in June
• How sticky are UK newspaper sites? 62.8 per cent of users look at just one page, says Alexa
• ABCes: Independent.co.uk records biggest increase in daily browsers
• Guardian: Mail website has most overseas users

ABCe Release: Brand Republic has published its first ABCe enhanced certificate

Brand Republic has published its first ‘site-centric visitor profile data’ via an ABCe Enhanced Certificate, according to a release from ABCe. ABCe said that the website, part of Haymarket Business Media, is the first business-to-business website to do so.

Full release…

Similar posts:

• PPA Magazines 2008: Grazia scoops PPA magazine of the year award
• Newbury News launches local business news website
• Always look on the bright side of life – business website bans bad news
• ReadWriteWeb: Twitter to offer brand pages like Facebook’s, report says
• MEN Media to launch new free business weekly

ABCe success for Dennis Publishing

Dennis Publishing‘s latest Audit Bureau of Circulations Electronic (ABCe) figures have been released highlighting a growth in popularity for the publisher’s digital titles.

Dennis’ iGIZMO, which was launched in February, attracted an average of 101,785 unique users per fortnightly issue over the last year, a press release from the group said, while weekly title Monkey recorded 283,541 unique users on average and 1,009,298 for September.

The latest figures show a fourth successive rise in ABCes for Monkey, according to the release.

Fortnightly magazine iMOTOR’s issue average for unique users was 108,622 – 221,739 in September’s figures.

These audits prove that the digital magazine sector is a viable, growing and successful business model. In addition, these titles are really delivering for our advertisers,” said Bruce Sandell, head of NPD at Dennis, in the statement.

Similar posts:

• Dennis signs PKR in first customer magazine deal
• Malcolm Coles: How US traffic is vital for UK newspaper sites
• Online mag Monkey expands into mobile TV
• Shiny Media reports October blog traffic boost
• Journalism.co.uk: Dennis launches new digital title Gizmo

ABCe opens six month audit option to all publishers

Following the release of six month certificates for the regional press, media auditors ABC are extending the offer of twice yearly online audits to all media owners, from January 2009.

An ABC press release said yesterday that the new certificates will detail monthly and daily unique users or browsers for media publishers. Visual charts will also be available.

The existing monthly audits can still be conducted using ABCe.

The ABC statement explained that by choosing to report their online figures on a six month basis, publishers ‘are committing to continuous reporting of their online activity’.

Speaking in the release, Jan Pitt, director of magazines, ABC, said: “The response has been good so far, these changes are to give publishers more options and enable them to demonstrate to advertisers and media buyers their cross platform performance.”

A guide to how the reporting options work can be downloaded from the ABC website at www.abce.org.uk.

Similar posts:

• Guardian debuts six-monthly ABCe figures for regional websites
• ABCes: Independent.co.uk records biggest increase in daily browsers
• ABCe Release: Brand Republic has published its first ABCe enhanced certificate
• Brand Republic: FT withdraws from ABCe audits for web traffic
• Newsquest attracts 4.8m unique users in 2007

Guardian debuts six-monthly ABCe figures for regional websites

Guardian News and Media (GNM) has become the second publisher to officially sign up for the Audit Bureau of Circulations Electronic’s (ABCe) six-monthly web traffic audits, according to a release from the bureau.

The new audits will provide detailed daily, weekly and monthly breakdowns of unique user/browser and page impression figures for sites within GNM’s regional portfolio, which have previously reported web traffic stats on an ‘ad hoc’ basis.

Regional GNM sites getreading.co.uk, manchestereveningnews.co.uk and manchesteronline.co.uk , as well as thejobsmine.co.uk will be analysed as part of the new arrangement.

Online traffic data will be presented alongside print circulation figures for the titles, the bureau added.

GNM follows Northcliffe Media, which signed up 10 of its regional websites for the new certificate earlier this month.

In a press statement accompanying the announcement, Northcliffe said it plans to increase the audit to 20 sites by 2009, and to cover ‘all major urban and regional sites’ in the future.

Similar posts:

• MediaGuardian: ABCe audits under review
• Brand Republic: FT withdraws from ABCe audits for web traffic
• US newspaper circulations still falling, but decline is slowing
• WSJ.com: Major US newspaper circulations continue to fall
• Regional online traffic compared; Johnston Press comes out top