Why newspaper websites should be in your online plan

Tue, May 08, 2007

Tags: Advertising, Consumers Researching, Newspapers, Rich Media

Here is a great article that was sent to me from Las Vegas marketing guru Debbi Medsker that I thought was quite interesting which covers newspaper website audiences. Granted, it was released by the Newspaper Association of America which is like the NRA saying guns save lives, but overall we’ve seen a pretty solid response working with the leading Newspapers websites (i.e., NYTimes.com) that we think there is a lot of truth to the figures below. Thanks Debbi for the lead.

- Newspaper Web site visitors are online much more often than other Internet users. 72.6 percent are online every day, versus just 57.8 percent of overall Internet users. In addition, 87.8 percent of newspaper Web site visitors are online five or more times each week.
- They are more likely to make purchases online than other Internet users.
- Top items for online shopping in the past six months by newspaper Web site users include books or music (58 percent), clothing (57 percent), airline tickets (53 percent), hotel accommodations (50 percent), electronics (49 percent), and event tickets (48 percent) (NAA, Power Users, 2006).
- More newspaper Web site visitors had broadband Wi-Fi access at home or at work than the general Internet using population, meaning they spend more productive time online and they are more likely to watch video and interact with other rich media. More than half of newspaper Web site visitors have college degrees, compared to just 35 percent of non-visitors (NAA, Power Users, 2006).
- More than 42 percent of consumers say they are motivated to begin an online search after viewing an advertisement in a newspaper (BIGResearch, Simultaneous Media Survey, 2007).
- Advertising credibility is a positive factor for newspaper Web sites. Among newspaper Web site visitors, almost one-third say they are more likely to trust advertising from this source than from anywhere else on the Internet (NAA, Power Users, 2006).
- Among newspaper site visitors who own Treos, Blackberries or other portable e-mail devices, 48 percent are very or somewhat interested in news or event information to these devices, while 18 percent are interested in advertising and product offers (NAA, Power Users, 2006).

Click here to read the full story.