“Like the Good Housekeeping seal, newspapers have become the assumed guarantee of credible news and information, by other media, businesses and consumers as well. Leveraging this brand trust, the entire public relations industry is interested in earning newspaper coverage for companies that seek to improve their public identity,” argues Andy Ellenthal in this piece.

According to Ellenthal, who, it should be pointed out, is CEO of ad network quadrantONE, public trust in newspapers’ brands has been boosted by their ability to capture audiences on and offline.

Backed up with stats from a recent Online Publishers Association (OPA) study, Ellenthal says this trust drives readers to make purchases based on ads carried by these titles.

“Carrying over from their print-based parents, the public has formed a trusted bond with the newspaper websites of their community, more so than with other media,” he adds.

Outside of the OPA research – is this the case in the US and beyond? As regional newspaper resources are cut is it still true to suggest that these are the most trusted brands on/offline?

Perhaps in terms of advertising they still are, as the ad industry remains largely conservative in its choice of medium and advertising models for niche and independent information websites are still being tinkered with.

Regional journalists – what are your experiences? Is there more newspapers could be doing (or you are already doing) to build trust with audiences online?

Full article at this link…

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Online advertising is going to overtake radio in the advertising market, MediaGuardian reported today.

Richard Wray’s article stated that while Carat – part of the Aegis marketing empire – had reduced its forecasts for the global advertising markets for 2008/9, it also said online advertising will continue to grow, overtaking radio as the third most popular advertising medium after TV and newspapers and magazines.

MediaGuardian’s report is interesting to look at in the light of statistics made available last week by the Online Publishers Association (OPA).

The US-based figures suggest that ‘consumers on all three types of local media sites – newspapers, television stations and magazines – are more likely to take action after viewing a local advert than visitors on all other local content sites’.

As part of the OPA study, JupiterResearch surveyed 2,069 US online consumers ‘who qualified as Local Online Content Users, by currently using online yellow pages, newspaper, TV, magazine, city guides, user review sites, portals or classifieds for local information.’

Here’s the breakdown:

Per cent of consumers taking action after viewing local adverts

• Local Newspaper Site: 46%
• Local Television Site: 44%
• Local Magazine Site: 42%
• User Review Site: 39%
• Portal: 37%

Click here to view the full report and follow this link for the press release.

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Pete Clifton, head of editorial development for multimedia journalism at the BBC, has said 47 per cent of the 17 million weekly unique users to the BBC News website come from outside of the UK.

Around half of these users, he told the Online Publishers Association conference, are from the US with a strong ex-pat following, but growing interest from US nationals in the BBC’s news coverage.

The site is also popular in India and Canada, Clifton added.

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