Are Long-Distance Users an Inconvenient Truth? Profiling U.S. Newspapers' Online Readership in the Dual-Geographic Market

Abstract

In response to the newspaper crisis, U.S. newspapers are seeking new business models for their online operation, but often ignore non-local readers who constitute a non-traditional niche audience with market potential. This study attempts to expand the understanding of the U.S. online newspaper readership in the dual-geographic market by empirically comparing local and long-distance users on demographic characteristics, online behavior, and satisfaction level with the newspaper site. Utilizing a dataset containing 28 newspaper Web sites' 25,964 visitors, this study performed a large-scale, in-depth analysis of online newspapers' long-distance readership unseen in previous research. Results show that more than one fourth of these newspaper sites' online users reside outside the print market. Most long-distance users have personal ties with the geographic area associated with the newspaper. Compared with local users, long-distance users tend to be male, older, better educated, and with a higher income. They are more likely to obtain local sports information from the site, but are less likely to visit the classifieds areas of the site. They also tend to be more loyal to and satisfied with the newspaper site. Newspapers should perceive long-distance users as a potential audience segment rather than an inconvenient truth when developing content, pricing, and marketing strategies.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

We thank Greg Harmon and the researchers at Belden Associates (now Belden Interactive) for sharing their data.

Notes

1. Although this particular model may not apply in other newspaper markets, newspapers, in general, tend to be geographically specific (Lacy & Simon, 1993).

2. Webtrends analyzes Web server log files and presents site traffic data through a graphic interface.

3. For these newspapers (mostly community papers), traffic data were collected at the corporate level, so individual papers were not responsible for monitoring site traffic.

4. It is recognized that frequent or heavy users might be more likely to participate in the survey than one-time, “drive-by” users directed to the newspaper site through search engines, but most newspaper site users on most days (as opposed to aggregate monthly measures) are heavy users (Bentley & Harmon, 2004).

5. Exceptions exist, as some countries restrict access to news and information through the Internet.

6. The survey was made available on the 28 sites for 21 to 41 days. Belden Associates has since dissolved and resurrected as Belden Interactive.

7. In 2007, the average circulation for a U.S. daily newspaper was 35,683 for weekday editions (Editor & Publisher, 2008).