Newspapers Digital First News Summary-05/25/12

Posted on May 24, 2012 by

Here’s this week’s digital first news for the week ending 05/25/12. This update on digital, social and mobile includes a report on how Gannett has redesigned their business model to maximise efficiency   See this and more in this week’s update:

The Des Moines Register Publisher Announces Subscription Plan Changes                         For 163 years and tens of thousands of editions, The Des Moines Register has delivered the news that Iowa depends upon.

Smartphone users spending more time on Facebook                                                                   A new comScore study shows that the average U.S. Facebook mobile user spent more than seven hours perusing the site via cell phone in March – surpassing time spent on Facebook via computer. Other social networks also did well via mobile.

Home Is Where the Tablet Is                                                                                                      Just over one-third of tablet owners likely to use devices in-store

Does a digital-first mindset expedite our current woes?                                                          Far too many newspapers have gutted their traditional products very deeply in a quest to free up money for their digital escapades.

“Who Needs Newspapers?” It’s fewer people than publishers seem to believe                     In the April/May issue of AJR, academics Paul Steinle and Sara Brown report on their travels to 50 newspapers in 50 states to find out what was happening in newspapers big and small, from The Seattle Times to the 12,000-circulation Daily Republic in Mitchell, S.D.

The Race To Build The Instagram Of Video                                                                    Facebook Inc.‘s $1 billion acquisition of photo-sharing start-up Instagram has shifted the spotlight to the newest phenomena in mobile apps: uploading personal videos from smartphones

New App Puts Newspaper Ads On Facebook                                                                              Ad Supercharger delivers newspaper display ads by email each morning, and also makes newspaper ads sharable on social media sites, allowing readers to share ads with friends on Twitter and Facebook, or print ads on their home printer.

At Risk: The Best Newspaper Ad Buyers                                                                        Following the collapse of the national and classified categories in the last six years, the most faithful remaining customers for newspapers today are the local retailers who purchased fully half of the $23.9 billion in advertising sold by the industry in 2011.

Why Publishers Don’t Like Apps                                                                                                 The future of media on mobile devices isn’t with applications but with the Web.

Newspapers Still Have Value In Digital Age                                                                               We don’t realize how much news media has changed in the past fifteen years. We really don’t.

Just 10% of UK Consumers Willing to Pay for Online Content                                              Just 10% of UK consumers are willing to pay for content online, according to new research from the IAB and ValueClick, indicating the hurdles still facing content producers looking to monetise on the internet.

Postal Service Losses of $3.2 Billion in Q2                                                                                 The Postal Service ended its second quarter (Jan. 1 – March 31) with a net loss of $3.2 billion, compared to a net loss of $2.2 billion for the same period last year.

Digital First Readies Community Newsrooms                                                                      Digital First Media announced this week that it will launch 12 new community newsroom projects, as it continues to seek ways to more effectively engage and involve its local readers.

Papers Offering More And Better Video News                                                                          Not to rouse the green-eyed monster or anything, but, as far as videographer jobs go, Anne Herbst has a pretty sweet one.

iPad advertising: pockets of innovation                                                                                Interactive in-app advertising continues to lag in most tablet editions. From the outside, it seems that more experimentation should be taking place.

Kindle Fire tablet demand drops                                                                                               Once hailed as the first true rival to the iPad, Amazon’s Kindle Fire no longer seems to be much of a threat to Apple’s tablet.

Gannett redesigns business model to maximise efficiency                                              Gannett is the largest newspaper group in the United States, yet two years ago, the company decided it was not the world-class media player it wanted to — and could — be.

Canada’s Globe And Mail To Erect Paywall                                                                      Canada’s Globe and Mail newspaper has announced plans for an online paywall to generate extra revenue and has also asked staff to take unpaid leave amid an ongoing slide in advertising income.

Next-gen iPhone design in limbo, October launch date remains likely                       According to a new report, Apple engineers have yet to finalize the design of the next-generation iPhone which could account for the disparity of rumors currently circulating about larger screen sizes and a Liquidmetal caseback.

Groupon’s Mobile Transactions Rise 30%                                                                         Groupon re-affirms what many of us believe and have been either reading or writing about, and that is that smart device transactions continue to rise.

Here Come Daily Deals from Foursquare!                                                                          Mobile-heavy check-in app Foursquare is looking to created new revenue streams, and the company is choosing daily deals as part of its plan.

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Newspapers Digital First News Summary-05/18/12

Posted on May 17, 2012 by

Here’s this week’s digital first news for the week ending 05/18/12. This update on digital, social and mobile includes a report on how 66% prefer reading print newspapers to the online version  See this and more in this week’s update:

Here’s Why Google and Facebook Might Completely Disappear in the Next 5 Years           We think of Google and Facebook as Web gorillas.  They’ll be around forever. Yet, with the rate that the tech world is moving these days, there are good reasons to think both might be gone completely in 5 – 8 years.

ABC: Newspaper Circulation Increased in Last Six Months, 5% on Sundays                      ABC released the semiannual newspaper FAS-FAX and Audience-FAX report today. This FAS-FAX report includes top-line circulation data for all newspaper members for the six months ending March 31, 2012. Newspapers participating in Audience-FAX have additional print and online readership and website activity data included in the report.

A. H. Belo Corporation Announces First Quarter 2012 Financial Results                    Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (“EBITDA”) was $5.1 million in the first quarter of 2012, an increase of 82 percent compared to the first quarter of 2011.

Media brands favor iPhone, iPad, survey finds                                                                     Despite the raw numerical superiority of the Google Android mobile operating system in the U.S. market, traditional media publishers remain wedded to Apple’s iOS for iPhone and iPad.

Pinterest doubles user base in three months                                                                            The number of daily unique visitors to the site has gone from 2 million in January to 4 million in March.

News Execs: Social Not Necessarily A Savior                                                                          Tech giants may have their own views on what journalism should become, but some news organisations are questioning what benefits the social vision of future news can really bring at a time when they’re struggling for business survival…

Minnesota’s Star Tribune Sees Turnaround                                                                                In 2009, the Star Tribune found itself on a dubious list: The 10 Most Endangered Newspapers in America.

ABC: Digital 14% Of Newspapers’ Total Circ                                                                               On average, digital circulation now accounts for 14.2% of newspapers’ total circulation, up from 8.66% a year ago, according to the ABC, according to the Audit Bureau of Circulations semiannual report released today.

66% Prefer Reading Print Newspaper To Online Version                                                 Despite the continuing shift from print to online media over the past several years, most Americans still like to read the newspaper away from their computers.

WashPo Sunday Circ Drop Not That Steep                                                                                  At first glance, The Washington Post’s numbers reported Tuesday morning inthe Audit Bureau of Circulations’ March report look grisly

Web-First Boosts Christian Science Monitor                                                                         Three years ago, the Christian Science Monitor began a jump-in-the-deep-end version of digital transformation. The Monitor killed its five-day-a-week print edition, started a weekly magazine version and shifted daily operations entirely to the Web.

Several big circulation gainers charge for online access, almost none of losers do              New figures released today by the Audit Bureau of Circulations show that nationally, daily circulation was up .68 percent for digital and print at the 618 papers reporting; Sunday circulation was up 5 percent at the 532 papers reporting. But some papers did better than that, and some did worse.

A Marketer’s Guide To Pinterest                                                                                              With Pinterest rapidly becoming one of the fastestgrowing social networking services ever, it’s no wonder that we keep seeing new and exciting ways to use this platform.

New iPhone: Details Revealed                                                                                               Rumors run rampant about the next iPhone, but now a reliable source has provided specific and tantalizing details.

Facebook Adds Action Links To Timeline                                                                        Facebook is trying to make its Timeline profile pages more interactive by letting developers add customizable action links to posts that come from apps.

Millennials and Print Newspapers: A Surprising Story                                                         Reports on the media habits of Millennials, those “digital natives”, have given some the impression that young people never read newspapers. However, survey evidence stubbornly insists that they do.

With Smartphones, Clorox Meets Moms in the Shopping Aisle                                Immediacy is what’s unique to mobile. It means mom can take action now. Whether it’s looking up information, shopping or networking, she can do that immediately.

Ad buyers want more tablet edition metrics                                                                           Print media buyers have sent a letter to the MPA asking magazine publishers to reveal more information about their tablet editions’ performance. Among their other requests, buyers want information on consumer engagement with ads customized for tablet editions and separate paid circulation guarantees for print and digital circulation.

Tablet tests support horizontal swiping for photo galleries                                            Poynter’s “EyeTrack: Tablet” project announced some early results: iPad users have an overwhelming instinct to swipe horizontally through a full screen photo gallery, regardless of portrait or landscape orientation.

Print-to-digital journey: Don’t stop rethinking                                                                         The Audit Bureau of Circulations’ latest semi-annual FAS-FAX report, released Tuesday, signals an important recalibration in media companies’ shift from print to digital business models.

The newsonomics of Pricing 101                                                                                                Now that news companies are getting comfortable with the idea of charging digital customers, the question becomes: How much? Here are nine things we’ve learned from early experiments.

Thanks for reading!

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Newspapers Digital First News Summary-05/11/12

Posted on May 10, 2012 by

Here’s this week’s digital first news for the week ending 05/11/12. This update on digital, social and mobile includes a report on how More People Buying the Tampa Bay Times on Sunday See this and more in this week’s update:

How Moms Engage With Social Media                                                                                          In the past month, Over 70% of women with children in their household have visited a social media site. Moms are highly engaged with these sites, primarily Facebook.

Click-Through Rates May Matter Even Less Than We Thought                                     Metrics Like ‘Hover’ and ‘View’ Found Better Indicators of Intent to Buy

Boston Globe Leaves Sunday-Only Rates Alone As It Raises Seven-Day Home Delivery Prices By 6 Percent The folks over on Morrissey Boulevard are trying to do whatever they can to shore up sales of the Sunday Globe. And you know what? Their approach might just be paying off.

Newspapers will die, but there’s still lots of time to live creatively                               Knowing that we have a limited mortality doesn’t mean that we have to head out to prepare our funerals yet, however. Instead, for our newspapers and ourselves, it makes more sense to improve our fitness and health to stay in reasonable shape as long as possible and even increase our longevity.

Tablets will be preferred computing device                                                                           Chalk another one up for the mobile revolution: There were 56 million tablets purchased worldwide in 2011, but a new report from Forrester Research predicts that number will explode in the years ahead

U.S. Mobile Spend To Double In 2012                                                                                            A new forecast from Strategy Analytics projects mobile ad spending worldwide will grow 85% in 2012 from $6.3 billion to $11.6 billion. In the U.S., the technology research firm predicts mobile advertising will grow even faster, more than doubling (up 128%) to just under $4.2 billion.

Are you a young dude interested in news?                                                                                  All else equal, this study says you’re a top paywall target Here’s a biggie: How do you get someone to pay for online news? A new study(PDF here) out of the University of Texas develops a theoretical model to begin answering that question.

Are robots and content farms the future of the news?                                                        There was some consternation in the media industry this week when theChicago Tribune announced that it was letting more than 20 of its journalists go and handing over its local coverage to an outfit called Journatic.

Ad revenues could take a big hit as tracking issues continue                                                 App developers could see their advertising revenues drop by as much as 24 percent as a result of reported moves by Apple to phase out the use of a key mobile tracking tool.

What is the purpose of a newspaper?                                                                                  Reuters blogger Felix Salmon recently wrote about what he saw as a hypothetical business opportunity for the cash-strappedNew York Times: namely, selling early access to news scoops like the paper’s expose on Walmart.

Rupert Murdoch Predicts Newspapers Could Die Out in 10 Years                                  Rupert Murdoch has predicted there may be no newspapers in 10 years’ time because of the competition from the internet, and urged the government not to “over-regulate” them out of existence.

More People Buying the Tampa Bay Times on Sunday                                                      Driven by growth in Hillsborough and east and central Pasco counties, the Tampa Bay Times increased its Sunday circulation by 4.4% in 2011 – the third consecutive year of growth – according to an annual audit released by the Audit Bureau of Circulations.

Can an Algorithm Write a Better News Story Than a Human Reporter?                             Had Narrative Science — a company that trains computers to write news stories—created this piece, it probably would not mention that the company’s Chicago headquarters lie only a long baseball toss from the Tribune newspaper building. Nor would it dwell on the fact that this potentially job-killing technology was incubated in part at Northwestern’s Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications. Those ironies are obvious to a human. But not to a computer.

Digital Innovators Vie For Lead In Charleston                                                                Charleston may be slathered with wedding-cake antebellum mansions and simmered in Southern tradition, but its news sites are experimenting with some decidedly untraditional ways to gather news — and audience.

There Will Be Twice as Many Tablet Owners in 2014                                                    Carrying on from a raft of new figures on how tablet ownership is about to explode, Futuresource Consulting has now said that there will be twice as many tablet owners in USA and western Europe by 2014.

Newspaper Websites See Increases in Unique and Average Daily Visitors in First Quarter Newspapers improved upon their website traffic in the first quarter of 2012 with a 4.4 percent increase year-over-year in adult unique visitors (113 million) and a 10 percent increase in adult average daily visitors (25 million).

Consumers Turn to Tablets to Research Purchase Decisions                                   Multidevice usage common among consumers researching products and services

Digital Content Wants A Fee … But How Much                                                                         The confusing digital world has led news companies to sell the same goods at different price points across different platforms. Is there a magic number?

Pew: 17% of Americans get no news daily                                                                                    17 percent of all Americans get no news every day. Strangely, that’s the same percentage of Americans who read a newspaper every day. The statistic’s even starker for certain age groups: 31 percent of people ages 18-24 get no news on an average day, and 22 percent of 30-34-year-olds get none either.

Thanks for reading and tell a friend or colleague about www.digitalfirstnewspapers.com.

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Newspapers Digital First News Summary-05/04/12

Posted on May 3, 2012 by

Here’s this week’s digital first news for the week ending 05/04/12. This update on digital, social and mobile includes a report on how online banner ads are among the least trusted sources of commercial information, according to an important new consumer survey. See this and more in this week’s update:

Video, Social Boost US Mobile Content Consumption                                                            One-third of US population will use social networking and video on mobile devices by 2016

The future of media: Many pieces, loosely joined                                                                 Media industry analyst Ken Doctor points out in a recent post at the Nieman Journalism Lab, it is far more likely that success for media entities of all kinds will come by making smaller bets on a number of different things.

Tablet sales will nearly double this year                                                                                    The age of the tablet is definitely upon us: Gartner released its latest forecast on Tuesday, showing that by the end of 2016 there will 665 million media tablets in use worldwide.

7 in 10 local news readers wouldn’t greatly miss their hometown paper                           Pew’s latest report, a deep dive into the characteristics of people who closely follow local news, is one of those glass-half-full/half-empty situations.

6 Mobile Coupon Platforms for Merchants                                                                             When it comes to small business marketing, merchants can’t sit back and wait for customers to come to them. They have to go where the customers are, and for the 88% of U.S. adults who own cell phones, that means going mobile.

New Jersey Papers To Put Up Paywall                                                                                      The New Jersey Press Media Group — which includes the Home News Tribune, Courier News and mycentraljersey.com — is beginning a new chapter in their 133-year history.

Banner ads flop in consumer-trust poll                                                                                  Online banner ads, which are the primary source of digital revenue for most publishers and broadcasters, are among the least trusted sources of commercial information, according to an important new consumer survey.

Digital Coupons Rival Print Counterparts in Effectiveness                                                     The battered US economy has driven price-conscious consumers online to do research before making a purchase, and eMarketer estimates that there will be 92.5 million online coupon users by the end of 2012.

The Frederick News-Post Resumes Monday Print Edition                                                Imagine a newspaper that is printed on broadsheet from Tuesday through Sunday but switched to tabloid for the Monday edition. Then imagine a paper that was published seven days a week for 126 years but then had to scrap Mondays due to hard times — and three years later was able to bring back the missing edition.

20% of Americans aren’t online                                                                                                   The Pew Internet Projectreleased its findings, that one in five U.S. adults simply is not on the Internet.

Newspaper readership is still making headlines                                                                       With spring comes the annual release of the NADbank readership results in Canada.

Four key drivers help grow audience, circulation                                                                      The New Zealand Herald’s audience strategy focuses on strong content, niche magazines, utilising customer data, and targeting the retail buyer.

Internet Ad Rev Hit $31B In 2011                                                                                           Total Internet ad revenue was up 22% over 2010, with mobile and digital video as the fastest growing categories, according to the latest report from the Interactive Advertising Bureau and PricewaterhouseCoopers released today.

The 99% rule and pay walls                                                                                                      When publishers put up paywalls they inevitably encounter what is not so flatteringly referred to as the 99% rule. This rule postulates that 99% of the readers who hit a publisher’s paywall are going to bounce out of the site, immediately.

NYT digital ad revenues dip; digital subs rise                                                                           The New York Times Co. raised eyebrows among media watchers this morning when it announced that online ad revenue had slid from a year ago.

Managing the digital audience                                                                                                Managing a digital audience is truly a mixed bag: on one hand, it is now possible to understand more about who is consuming what content, where, how and maybe even why; on the other hand, it can be incredibly complicated, despite all the advantages, to do so

5 leadership roles for a ‘digital first’ strategy                                                                               As the ’digital first’ mindset gains momentum across the publishing industry, media companies continue to alter their organizational structures to accommodate new digital roles and responsibilities.

How Tweets Helped Ala. Paper Win Pulitzer                                                                         When the Pulitzer Prize Board announced last year it would emphasize real-time reporting for the Breaking News category starting in 2012, some speculated whether we would someday see a Pulitzer Prize for tweeting. As it turns out, this year’s winner came pretty close.

Tablets Outpace PCs For TV Watching                                                                                  People who own tablets watch more full-length TV programming on their devices than their computers, finds a new study by Viacom.

In Jacksonville, Digital Creates Unique Allies                                                                           The battle lines between the major digital media players are drawn a bit differently in Jacksonville.

Thanks for reading this week’s edition.

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Newspapers Digital First News Summary-04/27/12

Posted on April 26, 2012 by

Here’s this week’s digital first news for the week ending 04/27/12. This update on digital, social and mobile includes a report on how young consumers switch media 27 times an hour.  See this and more in this week’s update:

Older Readers Flock to Digital                                                                                                  While many publishers are trying to cater their online presence to a younger demographic, The Times Record (timesrecord.com), in Brunswick, Maine, saw its number of digital subscribers increase with readers over the age of 50 when it implemented a paywall on its website.

What’s next for Philadelphia’s newspapers now that new owners are in place?                    The paper’s new owners say they’ve invested “patient capital” that will be take a longer view than a hedge fund’s needs. They’ve also pledged not to interfere in editorial decisions.

Is Apple using alleged false advertising to promote the iPhone 4S and new 4G iPad?    Apple is facing allegations of false advertising on two different fronts as customers of the iPhone 4S and the new iPad complain that the products do not work as promised.

Apple reportedly ‘noodling with’ 7.85-inch iPad prototype                                                  Apple is said to be “noodling with” ideas and prototypes for a 7.85-inch iPad, though it’s not clear if the device will ever see the light of day, according to one well-connected insider.

USA Today Staff Gets One-Week Furlough                                                                      Gannett is implementing one-week furloughs for USA Today employees, according to a report on Wednesday.

Google wants to mobilize your Web site – for free                                                                 Google wants to bring more small websites to mobile phones, and to help nudge those sites along it’s willing to foot the bill for a year.

Newspapers Aren’t Getting Much Out of Google+                                                            Google’s new focus on Google+ social signals and fresh content means news organizations have to learn to understand those factors. How are they doing so far?

A Newspaper Buying Spree                                                                                                     Today newspapers are far less valuable — by half or more — yet sellers and buyers are once again finding each other in great numbers.

Deep overlap in tablet, smartphone, TV use                                                                            New Nielsen research illustrates the deep overlap between tablets, smartphones and TVs

Repetition is the key to digital market education                                                               Change is hard for people, in any aspect of life. Harder still when you’ve been doing business one way for a number of years — and have had success with it.

Pinterest Now 3rd Most Popular Social Net                                                                                As if there was ever any doubt that the “pin” is winning, a new report from Experian saysPinterest is now the third most popular social network in the U.S., based on number of visits, surpassed only by Facebook and Twitter.

665 Million Tablets In Use By 2016                                                                                          With Over 45% Of Those iPad Devices The age of the tablet is definitely upon us: figures out today from Gartner forecast that by the end of 2016 there will 665 million media tablets in use worldwide — a counterpoint to the sluggish sales we have seen in PCs in the last couple of years.

Amazon Will Review Kindle Newspaper Submission                                                              Days after it told one publisher it had indefinitely suspended the program to approve its Kindle newspaper edition submission, Amazon has suddenly relented.

Campaign Aims To Prove Newspapers Are Indispensable                                                         A new marketing campaign from Pioneer Newspapers, Inc. is on a mission to send one very important message: Newspapers are alive and well. But you won’t find the message just in print. It’s being broadcast in television commercials, radio advertisements, and on billboards.

Mobiles Drive an 11% Increase in Online Searches                                                                Total retail search volumes grew 11% in the first quarter of 2012 compared with the same quarter a year earlier and the growth is all down to mobile and tablet search volumes which grew by 132% year-on-year.

Young Consumers Switch Media 27 Times An Hour                                                                 It’s every advertiser’s worst nightmare: consumers so distracted by a dizzying array of media choices that they no longer notice the commercials supporting them. And its time might be closer than you think.

Three in 10 Display Ads Go Unseen by Internet Users                                                      Where ads are purchased from and ad unit size affect display ads’ in-view percentage

Facebook-Instagram: 3 takeaways for publishers                                                                 Don’t concern yourself with all the hand-wringing about Facebook’s $1 billion acquisition of Instagram, which Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced Monday, on Facebook of course. In and of itself, the deal won’t have much impact on publishers’ digital strategies.

How the Texas Tribune is Making $5K a Month from Google Microsurveys                          A look at how the Texas Tribune and Adweek are using Google microsurveys as an additional revenue stream

Study Shows Consumers are Highly Engaged with Newspaper Content Across Platforms   A new study shows that in an average week, 74 percent of all Internet users rely on local newspaper media – digital as well as print – as key sources of news and information, and are engaging with their local newspaper across multiple platforms.

Thanks for reading!

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Newspapers Digital First News Summary-04/20/12

Posted on April 19, 2012 by

Here’s this week’s digital first news for the week ending 04/20/12. This update on digital, social and mobile includes a report on how Philly.com, the online side of the Philadelphia Inquirer and Daily News, is experimenting with selling sponsored tweets. See this and more in this week’s update:

Newspapers Start To Embrace The Future                                                                                  Is the newspaper industry dying or is it “managing through a transition of consumer habits” en route to a successful new business model?

Scripps Co.: Old Media Dog Full Of New Tricks                                                                         This year, the E.W. Scripps Co. will morph from a newspaper company that owns television stations to a broadcast company that owns some newspapers.

Newspaper Readership is Still Making Headlines in Canada                                         Canadian newspapers continue to be read by nearly 8 out of 10 adults each week. They have maintained loyal readers in print and at their websites.

Newspaper readers: If you cue them, they will come                                                            Cue-routine-reward. It is nice to think that we are all rational beings, planning out every decision.

Google Rolls Out Paywall Alternative                                                                                    Google has long been accused of being a content stealer and/or a value destroyer in certain publishing circles.

ABC, Nielsen Measuring iPad Behavior                                                                                   Early results of the research into reach, duration, frequency and page views of consumers’ iPad apps and Web usage.

Apple and Facebook Should Be Terrified Of Google-Tinted Glasses                                    Google’s augmented reality eyewear is coming to disrupt your face and your business model.

Digital Reading Gains Popularity in the U.S.                                                                             Around 20 per cent of US adults have read an e-book since last year, according to an extensive new study.

USA Today Bets on Adaptive Mobile                                                                            Newspapers are experimenting with different ways of distributing content on tablets. When it comes to mobile, most publications rush to replicate their content via an app. USA Today is thinking different.

Paper Execs Buoyant On Digital Prospects                                                                 Newspapers take heart: the gloom of dropping circulation and constricting newsrooms may finally be lifting, and the light at the end of the tunnel has a digital glow.

Paywall Promos: How Far Should Newspapers Open The Door?                                             As newspapers lock content behind paywalls, marketers are opening that same content right back up again through campaigns that provide readers with temporary access for free.

Tablet Users Demand Faster Load Times                                                                         Majority of users expect websites to load on tablets at least as fast as on PCs

Has ‘digital first’ been oversold?                                                                                           Healthy snacks, ‘digital first’ and the speed of the news industry’s transformation

Pinterest leads consumers from pin to purchase                                                          Marketers may soon add Pinterest into their attribution strategy. Studies have demonstrated the social site’s ability to generate leads. Now a recent study suggests it prompts consumers to make purchases.

Plotting a smooth course for the print-to-digital transition                                                    The first years in the mobile phone area were really hard ones. Companies were cautious and skeptical in the development of mobile-optimised Web sites and portals.

Philly’s Inky To Roll Out Augmented Reality                                                                 Augmented reality platform Aurasma and The Philadelphia Inquirer have teamed up to produce an augmented reality-powered newspaper, the companies announced Tuesday at the Newspaper Association of America’s mediaXchange conference in Washington, D.C.

Columbia Daily Trib Debuts Web App For iPad                                                                        The Columbia Daily Tribune opted to create the new app using HTML5, allowing readers to download it without using Apple’s App Store.

Wait — so how many newspapers have paywalls?                                                                     Just over two weeks ago, the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism reported that there are roughly 150 dailies in the United States that now have some form of digital subscription service. “Dozens more papers are likely to follow in 2012,” the study’s authors wrote.

Gannett offers 594 buyouts, begins accepting offers this week                                              Jim Hopkins of the Gannett Blog is tracking the buyout offers by property, the number of employees initially offered buyouts (594 total by his count), the number the company will actually grant, and the number that have been accepted.

Philly.com begins selling sponsorship for its tweets                                                     Philly.com, the online side of the Philadelphia Inquirer and Daily News, is experimenting with selling sponsored tweets. Some standard tweets sent every day, with top stories or weather, end with a “brought to you by…” sponsor line.

Thanks for reading this week’s update.

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Newspapers Digital First News Summary-04/13/12

Posted on April 12, 2012 by

Here’s this week’s digital first news for the week ending 04/13/12. This update on digital, social and mobile includes a report on six digital strategies that you can implement at your newspapers right now. See this and more in this week’s update:

Newspaper turmoil: Lessons learned                                                                                 Amanda Bennett, who was chief editor at the Philadelphia Inquirer for Knight Ridder, says that if she had it to do over again, one thing she would do is to have more trust in the news and the newspaper, and another would be to pay no attention to focus groups.

How Amazon sold 1 million deals in 17 hours                                                                     Amazon yesterday sold one million daily deals vouchers in 17 hours and didn’t need the help of its partner LivingSocial. Between 3 a.m. and 8:11 p.m. ET on Tuesday, the AmazonLocal initiative sold out of $10 Amazon gift cards priced at $5.

Tablet editions: Leveraging tap, swipe and scroll                                                         Publishers continue to experiment with ways to turn touch-screen functionality into a better user experience for their tablet editions.

INMA releases timely new strategic report on engaging audiences                                  INMA today released a new report about how to engage audiences through club- and community-based initiatives.

Lee To Roll Out Paywalls By End Of 2012                                                                              Mary Junck, Lee’s chairman and CEO, said during the company’s annual stockholder meeting Wednesday that reception of its digital subscriber program at six newspapers in Montana and Wyoming has been positive.

Google wants to serve you ads based on the background noise of your phone calls           Just when you think that we’re pretty tech savvy, companies like Google and Nokia file outlandish “forward-thinking” patents that make you feel like we’re all in a Star Trek episode.

6 Digital Strategies to Implement Right Now                                                                       Before you get overwhelmed by the thought of a company-wide digital overhaul, consider these smaller steps you can take today to help secure your paper’s digital presence tomorrow.

R.I.P., American Press Institute                                                                                                 The media executives who oversee it have decided that the American Press Institute has outlived its usefulness. They’ve fired the entire staff. They’re abandoning the Institute’s historic Marcel Breuer building in Reston, Virginia. Under the guise of a “merger” with the Newspaper Association of America (NAA) Foundation, API is simply disappearing.

Borrell: Digital Benchmarks By the Numbers                                                                           The digital gauntlets for 2012 were thrown on Thursday as analyst Gordon Borrell laid down the numbers for local media to hit.

As Pinterest grows visitors 52% in one month, journalism profs find news uses for it       The number of people visiting Pinterest exploded by 52 percent in February to 17.8 million, according to new comScore data.

80pc of mobile bankers will pay bills via their devices by 2016: Juniper                           More advanced mobile banking functionalities such as bill payment are driving momentum in the adoption of transactional mobile banking services, according to a new report from Juniper Research.

Facebook Sets High Asking Price for Log-Out Ads: $700K a Day                             Facebook’s new log-out ads are big, splashy and the closest thing to a traditional banner ad the social network has ever produced. They’re also pricey — similar to what it would cost to buy Yahoo, YouTube or MSN’s home page.

Six Quotes On How Newspapers’ Digital Fate Could Have Been Different                            Ah, hindsight. If newspaper editors had to battle the digital beast all over again, would they have picked another strategy?

Apple and iPhone App Developers Face Privacy Questions from US Congress        Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, Instagram and other startups asked to explain their data collection habits

WSJ Can Change Digital Subscriber Price On The Fly, Says Court                                          In 2006, the publisher of the Wall Street Journal spun off financial magazine Barron’s Online and required subscribers to pay more if they wanted to keep reading Barron’s. This week, angry customers who sued learned they are out of luck after a New York court rejected their breach of contract claim.

New iPad already accounts for over 6% of all Apple tablets                                                        A Friday report from a mobile ad network claims that, despite being on sale for only one week, the new iPad already accounts for 6.6 percent of Apple tablets accessing the internet.

Time of day is key to mobile commerce strategy                                                              Although mobile marketers might still be stumped about how to best leverage their mobile campaigns, time of day can be a great way for brands to send specific, targeted messages.

Facebook, lawmakers warn employers not to demand passwords                                       Facebook and lawmakers have warned employers against requesting Facebook passwords while screening job applicants, a controversial practice that underscores the blurring distinction between personal and professional lives the era of social media.

Paywalls Open Doors For Local News Sites                                                                                  It seems like paywalls are popping up all over the place these days.  In recent months Lee,GateHouse and Gannett, for example, have all announced or are implementing paid subscriptions for digital content.

Is A Paywall Coming To Washington Post?                                                                                Will you soon have to start paying to use The Post’s Web site? No, not in the short term, and maybe never, if I read the tea leaves correctly.

Thanks for reading!

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