INTEGRATION : Gold in them thar news websites

Late last year the people behind dompost.co.nz made a surprise discovery: Local body election results were hot news online.

Dominion Post general manager Paul Elenio concedes that while local body politics has always been part of the local news mix for a paper like the Dom, "we've never found

But when the paper posted full results online on the Sunday morning after polling day last October -the first time it had done so - web traffic to the site spiked to its highest level for the year.

A few weeks later the site's visitor metrics surged again, this time when it published

details from the leaked police affidavit behind the Urewera raids, and posted additional

details on the site.

Elenio says these two examples of content that has proven effective at driving traffic to the newspaper's website point to how publishers are learning to integrate their print and online offerings.

For the Dominion Post, he says, the strategy is about developing web-specific content and using the power of the newspaper and its 250,000-odd readers to make sure the paper attracts eyeballs across both mediums.

The country's major newspaper groups, Dom owner Fairfax and rival APN - along with their contemporaries around the globe - are still coming to grips with how to effectively merge their traditional print domain with the emerging web medium.

It's a challenge that is taking up a lot of head time at management level. "We are currently going through business planning sessions for the new financial year beginning in July and we're spending at least a third, up to half, of our time talking about how we can monetise our online websites and also how we can offer advertisers and visitors a better experience," Elenio told AdMedia.

"What we're looking at is investing a lot more money into the development of the websites [including www.dompost.co.nz and Fairfax's group-wide portal: stuff.co.nz] and having very content-rich sites which in a lot of ways are very different to what we do in the newspaper."

Over at APN, Warren Lee, the ceo of APN Online, says the company doesn't buy into the "new media versus old media" debate.

"We see the mediums as complementary and growing the total market. Digital, as an emerging medium, has found its place just as radio and television have done before it," Lee says.

He cites figures from the latest Nielsen national readership survey which showed daily readership of APN's flagship title, the New Zealand Herald, was up 17,000 (3%) in the 12 months to December 2007 to 585,000 readers (Nielsen - National 15+).

"At the same time unique browsers to our website [nzherald.co.nz] are up 46% to more than 600,000 a week. Visitors to the site are also reading more each time they visit, with page impressions increasing by 90 to 45.9 million."

Lee says these figures show the combination of mediums is growing the total market with both Herald readers and people outside the paper's geographical print coverage footprint visiting the website for news updates.

"We do not believe - and indeed the numbers do not show - that online will cannibalise newspaper audiences. The mediums are very complementary, with readers taking the opportunity to be updated through the day but still valuing the total package that newspapers provide in helping readers to understand and put into context the events that shape our lives.

"This is supported by the latest newspaper and website usage [stats]. Newspaper readership is up at the same time as there has been spectacular growth in the numbers of people engaging with the website."

Grey group strategist Michael Carney says while APN and Fairfax have both carved out decent online niches, globally no one has really cracked how to jointly promote online and offline ads together.

"They tend to be treated as two separate beasts, by and large, because they're different formats and have different requirements."

While he hasn't crunched the numbers, Carney says he suspects part of the issue around integration of the two mediums is that the profile of print and online news readers differs. While there will be some overlap, there is also probably a significant degree of divergence, with, for example, an older demographic skew towards papers and a younger skew online.

Carney says papers are in the fortunate position that they're still making significant revenue from the powerful print medium to fund online developments. The bad news: one recent US study suggested it could be seven to 10 years before newspapers are generating enough revenue from online to offset the decline in what they earn offline.

Elenio says: "American newspapers have really been hit hard by the advance of the web, both from a circulation and advertising perspective. We're in a situation where newspapers are still strong and a powerful medium but we do expect that the balance will change over the next few years.

"Our challenge is to work out where the inflection point is when we're going to see more and more of our readers and advertisers using the web, and are we going to see the impact on the newspaper."

He says one of the challenges for publishers pushing online as a medium to their advertising clients is that many of those clients don't have a strong web presence themselves to direct readers to. "What we're finding is that their first need is some assistance and some guidance as to what they should do with their websites, if they've got one, or some advice and direction on actually establishing a website."

According to Advertising Standards Authority stats, online accounted for $135 million (5.8%) of total adspend in 2007. This is well down on the slice of the pie online is getting in some markets, where its share is into double figures, although local spend is growing strongly.

That growth is reflected across the APN Digital Media Network, which represents more than 40 sites, says Lee, because advertisers recognise the value of the medium and are getting an appropriate return on investment. "New advertisers are now including online in their marketing mix and we are seeing existing advertisers grow their online spend.

"Online is becoming an integral part of marketing campaigns. The key factors are that it is immediate, measurable, cost effective and able to target audiences effectively and efficiently."

As far as the print medium goes, the recent Nielsen stats showed mixed fortunes in readership over 2007 for NZ's major daily titles and Sunday papers (see table).

The Newspaper Advertising Bureau described the findings of the readership survey as "another positive year for newspapers" since metropolitan markets gained a further 12,000 readers.

Newspaper publishers have responded to increased pressure on readership and circulation over the past few years by improving the quality and diversity of the printed product. "For print, there is always a challenge in constantly reinventing itself to suit the changing demands of the audience. It's a challenge all businesses face on a constant basis," says Lee.

"An analysis of the readership gains of the Herald in the last 12 months, by day, shows that our fastest growing day is Thursday with 37,000 new readers. This was achieved by the launch of the stitched entertainment product, Time Out, targeted at the weekend leisure needs of young readers."

He says the paper's new Friday business tabloid, The Business Herald, is also adding new readership.

The venerable newspaper does indeed remains a powerful force as an ad medium. The quality of "displayability" - being able to package up analysis of a news event in an easily-readable format where all the elements are given context - is one reason the newspaper offering still heads the ad industry turnover tables with a 35.4% share of total spend.

That's down from 40.6% a decade ago, however, so publishers need to keep working on those online strategies or risk losing more eyeballs in the rapidly digitising media landscape.

Nielsen Media Research

(Readership - all people 15+)

December 2006 December 2007 Change YOY

Daily Newspapers

NZ Herald 568,000 17.6% 585,000 17.8% +1%

Waikato Times 94,000 2.9% 95,000 2.9% No change

Dominion Post 253,000 7.9% 244,000 7.4% -6%

The Press 223,000 6.9% 233,000 7.1% +3%

Otago Daily Times 111,000 3.5% 107,000 3.3% -6%

Weekly Newspapers

Sunday News 376,000 11.7% 334,000 10.1% -14%

Sunday Star Times 577,000 17.9% 560,000 17.0% -6%

Herald On Sunday 326,000 10.1% 345,000 10.5% +4%