Newspaper blogs are boosting traffic and users
Readers here won’t be surprised by this, but Frank Barnako at Marketwatch is reporting that the blogging strategy of top newspapers is having a pretty significant impact on overall web traffic.
The number of visitors to the blog pages of the top 10 online newspapers grew 210% in the past year, far outpacing growth to the parent sites. Nielsen/NetRatings found that while the unique audience to online newspapers grew 9% from December 2005 to December 2006, the number of visitors to blog pages at the top newspapers skyrocketed and accounted for 13% of the parent sites’ total traffic.
At WKRN-TV, there are weeks when the 23 blogs outperform the mother site in all metrics, and I just wonder why it has taken these other folks so long to figure out that this is smart business.
But beyond all that, there are significant reasons why these types of “publications” are having an impact:
- They’re written in conversational English.
- They contain argument — the element missing in contemporary journalism thanks to the “cleansing” of that bogus standard known as objectivity.
- They offer transparency about the writer, which leads to trust.
But the greatest benefit of all about this kind of strategy is that it moves the creation of web content into the hands of the people who are paid to create content and away from a staff of re-writers, regardless of how talented they may be. That, more than anything else, makes this strategy one of enormous value.
January 21st, 2007 at 10:31 pm
I’m curious, Terry, what the WKRN sales team is able to sell their blogs for. I know you said they outperform the mother site. But one could argue, as I’m sure the WKRN sales team does, that the value of the ads on the blogs is much greater than even the spots on their late news. Why? Because the blogs create a conversation with the audience. Spots on the late news are simply push-type advertising. It has value. But when compared to actually creating a conversation with your audience one could argue the value in blog advertising is significantly heightened. Of course arguing that point and getting ad buyers to buy into the proposition is two different things. So I’m curious how successful they are to this point.
January 21st, 2007 at 10:46 pm
By the way, I forgot to mention, newly announced presidential candidate, Senator Clinton’s website is full of this phrase: “Let the conversation begin.”
Explain to me again what type of advertising is more valueable - push-type or conversations?
January 22nd, 2007 at 7:55 am
Randy, WKRN’s revenue play is primarily in pre-roll, 10-second ads, the CPMs for which are often higher than what they charge on-the-air.