Newspaper circulations may be declining but viewership of newspaper websites are soaring — growing at nearly twice the rate of the general online audience, according to data released today by the Newspaper Association of America. Reports the association:
An average of more than 59 million people (37.6 percent of all active Internet users) visited newspaper Web sites each month during the first quarter, a record number that represents a 5.3 percent increase over the same period a year ago, according to Nielsen/NetRatings NetView custom analysis. During the same time period, the overall Internet audience grew just 2.7 percent.
Said Shawn Riegsecker, CEO of Centro, a Chicago based company that works with interactive media agencies to facilitate online ad buys:
It’s no surprise newspapers are attracting online readers at this incredible rate. As consumers become more sophisticated in navigating the Web, they are turning to trusted sources of news and information, like newspapers, instead of content aggregators or portals. This couldn’t be better for the industry, as newspapers control more of this information than any other medium. As newspapers continue to invest in their digital properties and produce world-class content, I predict they will capture a much larger percentage of the overall online pie.
I suspect that Riegsecker is right. But there’s just one problem. Print newspapers generate considerably more revenue per reader than does online news. Internet-based news operations cannot support the same level of editorial overhead. So, I return to my usual tag-line:
Who will gather the news?