Get More from Search - Trends in Search & Social Media

These days, when the 40 and below crowd think about newspapers, they think of an older, leisurely mentality that no longer exists.  Newspapers have been tagged with an image that is antiquated and somewhat irrelevant. Something had to be done. Rather than become handicapped by this image, newspapers across the United States have decided to improve the view that people have of them. They didn’t do anything flashy or ostentatious and they didn’t eliminate the traditional newspaper. Instead, they provided their content online for a busy community to peruse at their leisure.

Newspapers decided that instead of forcing their consumer to go to the store and buy their product that they would offer it free online. Then you have to ask yourself, how do they make their money if people aren’t buying the newspaper they can get for free? Advertising. This same philosophy works for them online. Instead of selling print ads in their newspaper, they sell online ads on their website.

And their audience is responding – both in readership and in online purchases.

Another aspect that newspapers are tapping into is the blog market. Traffic for newspaper blogs for the top 10 online newspapers grew 210% from December 2005 through December 2006. If newspapers can get consumers to visit their blogs then they are likely to view the articles provided online. With the increase in traffic, newspapers have the opportunity to increase their advertising exposure and therefore are able to improve their advertising sales.

 

 

 

 

In a recent study by the Newspapers Association of America (NAA), it found that 82% of the people who visit newspaper sites on a daily basis are more likely to make purchases online. This study will help newspapers leverage their advertising campaign to corporations and enable them to increase their advertising business. To find out more information about online newspaper growth, you can visit www.digitaledge.org, the NAA’s digital-media analysis website and www.emarketer.com, a streamlined, e-business research solution.