The number of people logging on to the website of their local newspaper has increased at the same time as sales of the print counterpart is in decline.
Today’s ABC figures show that all of the regional newspaper publishers have seen the average amount of daily unique users on their sites increase during the last six months of 2011.
The Midlands News Association, which owns the Shropshire Star and Express and Star, saw the biggest overall increase of 29.1pc, followed by Iliffe News and Media which had a 28.8pc increase for its websites, which include the Cambridge News.
MNA acting head of digital Will Beavis said: “The editorial team’s superb round the clock coverage of the Midlands riots made the Express & Star website an essential destination for online readers but our broader digital strategy has ensured that a compelling product is delivered to the growing audience.”
Among those sites doing particularly well are Trinity Mirror’s the Newcastle Chronicle website, chroniclelive, which has seen an increase in users of 34.3pc, and the company’s Wales Online which was up by 31.6pc.
Newquest’s London News Shopper website, which covers four titles, posted a 33.8pc increase, while Johnston Press site yorkshirepost.co.uk was up by 21.2pc and sunderlandecho.com by 25.5pc.
Roger Green, Digital Media Managing Director for Newsquest Media Group said: “In December we launched a new version of our mobile site network to meet the growing appetite of smart phone users for up-to-the-minute news and local travel information.
He added: “Users who access our content on the move are increasingly making repeat visits to our sites helping us to grow our page views by more than 31 million during the audit period.”
Not all sites posted increases however, with Northcliffe owned thisisgrimsby seeing a decline in its daily unique users of 19.1pc.
Below is the full breakdown of regional newspaper websites by publishing group. The first column is the average daily number of unique users, the second is the percentage increase or decrease on the Jul-Dec 2010 figures.
| Iliffe News & Media | ||
| Iliffe Digital Network | 44,942 | 28.8% |
| Cambridge News | 19,046 | 26.7% |
| Jobs Now | 2,746 | -6.9% |
| Johnston Press | ||
| Johnston Network | 452,380 | 13.0% |
| Blackpoolgazette.co.uk | 17,746 | 11.1% |
| Halifaxcourier.co.uk | 8,976 | 3.2% |
| LEP.co.uk | 16,123 | 5.6% |
| Peterboroughtoday.co.uk | 11,757 | 13.9% |
| Portsmouth.co.uk | 21,821 | 8.6% |
| Scotsman.com | 94,605 | -2.6% |
| www.scotsman.com/jobs | 3,029 | – |
| Sunderlandecho.com | 13,834 | 25.5% |
| Thestar.co.uk | 26,583 | -0.2% |
| Yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk | 28,152 | 14.6% |
| Yorkshirepost.co.uk | 19,196 | 21.2% |
| www.jobstoday.co.uk | 38,026 | – |
| KM Group | ||
| Kent Online (KM Group) network | 20,580 | 23.2% |
| Midland News Association | ||
| Midland News Association Network | 59,640 | 29.1% |
| Expressandstar.com | 44,786 | 32.8% |
| Shropshirestar.com | 16,969 | 23.2% |
| Shropshire Star | – | -11.8% |
| Newsquest | ||
| Newsquest Network | 449,121 | 13.6% |
| dailyecho.co.uk | 25,802 | 12.9% |
| eveningtimes.co.uk | 21,226 | -8.4% |
| heraldscotland.com | 40,975 | -7.4% |
| lancashiretelegraph.co.uk | 23,886 | 23.2% |
| newsshopper.co.uk | 11,386 | 33.8% |
| Oxfordmail.co.uk | 12,194 | -0.2% |
| Swindonadvertiser.co.uk | 14,157 | 25.1% |
| theargus.co.uk | 23,660 | 9.7% |
| theboltonnews.co.uk | 14,211 | 15.7% |
| thenorthernecho.co.uk | 18,572 | 9.6% |
| thepress.co.uk | 19,431 | 21.0% |
| thetelegraphandargus.co.uk | 21,305 | 13.2% |
| Northcliffe Digital | ||
| Northcliffe Digital Network | 302,463 | 5.4% |
| thisisbristol | 22,518 | -9.9% |
| thisisderbyshire | 20,080 | -8.8% |
| thisisgloucestershire | 18,322 | -8.9% |
| thisisgrimsby | 12,909 | -19.1% |
| thisishull | 27,017 | 0.8% |
| thisisleicestershire | 24,729 | 0.4% |
| thisislincolnshire | 12,261 | -0.9% |
| thisisnottingham | 27,947 | -2.0% |
| thisisplymouth | 20,482 | -7.3% |
| thisisscunthorpe | 6,397 | -17.8% |
| thisissouthwales | 12,175 | 3.5% |
| thisisstaffordshire | 22,341 | 1.2% |
| Trinity Mirror | ||
| Trinity Mirror Regional Network | 469,707 | 12.2% |
| www.birminghammail.net | 32,854 | 27.4% |
| www.birminghampost.net | 7,907 | 6.8% |
| www.chroniclelive.co.uk | 32,339 | 34.3% |
| www.coventrytelegraph.net | 23,110 | 4.6% |
| www.dailypost.co.uk | 13,071 | 23.4% |
| www.gazettelive.co.uk | 20,434 | 12.6% |
| www.journallive.co.uk | 14,773 | 13.5% |
| www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk | 15,489 | -7.0% |
| www.liverpoolecho.co.uk | 63,057 | 11.3% |
| manchestereveningnews.co.uk | 82,193 | 26.1% |
| www.Walesonline.co.uk | 49,426 | 28.5% |
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That’s absolutely marvellous news, we’re all saved. Oh, hang on – how much did all those visitors pay to come on to our sites? Ah, back to the drawing board then…
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One thing that always intrigues me is how the ISPs and co. come up with their figures..
Mine told me that one of my sites attracted ‘43,000 unique hits’ one month..
It’s not due to go up until June!
Can’t wait until then!!!
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So why aren’t our sales teams – of whose numbers rise to become MDs these days – making any money out of online.
Oh.
Sorry.
Silly me.
We only fire editorial jobs.
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What is this constant rubbish spouted about websites not making any money? Yes, the ad reps don’t often hit their budgets, as they are usually ridiculous, but that’s budget – not profit. The actual associated cost of running a website compared with a print operation is minimal. If you compare the cost editorially, commercially and production-wise for both print and online, the online model is an area of the business which is growing, albeit slowly and in no way a standalone model… yet! Yes, most editorial departments will continue to get cut, many more dailies will become weeklies, many more paid-for weeklies will become free and some may eventually become online-only operations in the future. When the latter happens, the news teams will be small and the publishers will not be making the crazy profits that newspapers once did, but making a tidy, respectable profit and growing an audience again. As a former print journalist, I hope everyone gets to stay at their beloved newspapers for a long as possible, but unless you try to get involved with ‘the dark side’ in some way, you have no long-term future in this industry.
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From a regional and local perspective there’s very much a place for digital, but readers are using it because they can pick and choose what to read, and ignore the grout and filler that the print editions are chock full of, and not worth paying for. the digital mantra ‘Content is King’ also applies to print but until publishers get their head round filling up their print editions with quality editorial and unique features instead of the banal crap that’s lifted straight from PA, and removing the cover charge, print is doomed. If they make a sea-change I’m convinced print and digital can complement each other and be profitable.
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Tog has hit the nail on the head I think.
@middleagedhack your buying into the myth that all the jobs being lost at newspaper groups are in editorial, I know from personal experience that lots of people have lost their jobs in associated jobs like printing presses and in digital. I don’t know about sales, but it’s not just the journalists that are suffering.
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Totally agree with you Tog. The word ‘complement’ is key. You shouldn’t promote the paper online with the dreaded ‘For more on this story…’ and you should only to use the paper to let readers know about additional online content which they can’t provide such as video. If the websites are used to break timely news, and, yes, even police or council press releases, the paper can do the additional in-depth reporting. There are far too many hyperlocal sites stealiing a march on the newspapers by putting up everything that’s out there, but they rarely follow things up in more detail. If we do both, we pull the rug from under these smaller operations and still provide the quality and trust when it’s needed. In turn, that in-depth reporting then doesn’t always have to be used online immediately as it’s more likely to be less time sensitive. This way, the paper gets its quality exclusives and the web gets the same quality a day after the paper, but it’s still first to break all major local news first! Everyone’s a winner!
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For me, it is pure common sense for many of the daily papers middling around the 20,000 mark to go weekly. A weekly, bumper ad-filled package with reduced distribution costs could even be combined with a weekly glossy lifestyle magazine to ensure an expansion of brand and product.
And the daily news agenda would be well – better, even – served by a combination of websites and phone and tablet apps. Some daily papers could even merge to produce a larger product.
Newspapers wouldn’t have to lay off staff either. They could put them to use in furthering other areas – creating special publications which make great use of their library archives, for instance, or producing new brands, restaurant guides, student specials and the like.
With a good syndication department, daily newspapers would be able to turn themselves into regional news hubs serving both their local communities and national interests such as national websites and newspapers.
They need to start thinking big.
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One trend among people posting on HTFP that causes me some concern is the tendency to suggest that newspaper circulations are falling primarily because of a lack of quality copy. This could be interpreted as an insult to hard-working news and production teams.
When I look at both hard copy and online versions of a variety of regional dailies, I struggle to find much evidence that content is now inferior to the good old days. The Derby Telegraph’s campaign to save the Bombardier works was a shining example of good local journalism and the Nottingham Post does a tremendous job in keeping an eye on activities within the city council.
It is easy to forget how regional papers, both daily and weekly, used to be filled with column after column of parish council reports about a new bench on the public park. I know, because sadly I wrote enough of it myself. Presentation, largely because of technological advance, is far better than it used to be and I believe, in general, that copy is brighter.
Many newspapers are much better today than they were when I started my career. Unfortunately, they are falling victim to changing lifestyles and expectations.
The sad truth of the circulation decline is that younger people do not buy newspapers and it is unlikely that they will start to do so once they get older. I do occasional seminars for masters degree students and they regard any suggestion that they should buy newspapers with nothing less than hilarity.
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The trouble is these figures of unique users per day are very small. In web terms they’re absolutely minuscule – and there are also question marks as to their ‘quality’. Are they the people advertisers want to reach? If you’re a local firm are they even in in your catchment area? And some regional newspaper websites are chasing ANY hits whatsoever with all manner of the weird and wonderful stuff copied and pasted from other news sites. It’s a bit of a mess.
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Couldn’t agree more with Rupert. My colleague is currently sat with a stack of our old papers and they are shocking in terms of content and layout.
For example the splash of one edition is “House burgled in night.”
No quotes from homeowners, appeal for witnesses and an “anonymous resident”.
But no this was when our paper was good and sold well as we had journos who knew the patch and could get the best out of a story…
Give me a break.
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I think it varies to be honest. There are some regional dialies that were brilliant 20 years ago but are medicore now, and others that were frankly amateurish then and are now much more professional. I suspect there has been a general levelling upward in terms of design though.
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The figures for thisissouthdevon have been missed from the Northcliffe group, unless I’m mistaken
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No subby bye byes, you’re not mistaken, the figures for thisissouthdevon are AWOL. As are the ones for thiswasexeter.
Is it ‘cos we is weekly now?
I’d also be wary about the term unique users. The figures are based on IP addys (your ‘puters adress to you non-techies) and a further identifier (cookie, user reg, user agent).
So it’s really an identifier of a computer, not a person. Add to this many people can access the the old www in many ways (home computers, office computers, tablets, mobile phones etc – all of which have their on IP addy) and I’d take the figures with a VERY large pinch of salt when it comes to their accuracy as it may well be a case of single unique users on multiple machines rather than multiple unique users on single machines.
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