Registration scheme foiled …

Posted on February 21, 2006
Filed Under Bad Things, Newspapers, Paid Content, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment

Steve Outing posts on his behaviour in relation to the “first article free of registration” strategy a good number of pubishers have deployed.

We are actively looking at this.  From recent analysis there is evidence to support this theory - according to HBX - 92% of what we term “drive by” or causal users of the sites look at only one article during a visit despite there being very well targeted related artricles - 7% carry on so must be registered or register at this point.  Not sure what happens to the other 1%.  

Newspaper Circulation Worst Since 1996

Posted on May 17, 2005
Filed Under Bad Things | Leave a Comment

John Strum, Executive Director, Newspaper Association of America, as reported by eMarketer, said "Two years ago search engines were not viewed as much of a threat, (but) over the past year newspapers have recognized their effect." In reporting the latest data according to the Audit Bureau of Circulations, eMarketer concludes that the threat is real. Daily US newspaper circulation dropped 1.9% in the six-month period ending March 31, which was the largest decline since 1995-1996, when circulation fell nearly 2.1%. Sunday circulation declined 2.5% over the last six months, compared with the same period a year ago.

Average Weekday Circulation for Select US Newspapers
Six Months Ending March 31, 2005

 

Circulation (millions)

% Chg From Prior Year

USA Today

2.28

0.05%

Wall Street Journal

2.07

-0.80

New York Times

1.14

0.24

Los Angeles Times + Sat

.91

-6.47

Washington Post

.75

-2.68

New York Daily News

.74

-1.54

New York Post

.68

.01

Chicago Tribune

.57

-6.64

Houston Chronicle + Sat

.53

-3.92

San Francisco Chronicle

.47

-6.07

Source: ABC, April 2005

 

The rate of decline has been 0.5% to 1% since newspaper circulation peaked in the mid-1980s, but this year’s drop alarms many in the business. John Morton, a newspaper industry analyst, said "I don’t see any bright spots and I don’t see any reasonable expectation this is going to change anytime soon." According to the Newspaper Association of America and Scarborough Research, adult readership continues to fall (as a % of the population) except for the younger and older readers, although only 19% of the 18-34 year olds rank newspapers as their primary source for current information, says the Carnegie Corporation.

"The future course of the news, including the basic assumptions about how we consume news and information and make decisions in a democratic society, is being altered by technology-savvy young people no longer wedded to traditional news outlets or even accessing news in traditional ways," wrote Merrill Brown, a media consultant and founding editor-in-chief of MSNBC.com, in the report. The report concludes that youth-drain is not the whole explanation for the decline. Readers simply have access to a great many news outlets that didn’t exist 20 years ago, including the online sites of the newspapers themselves.

PowerPointLess…

Posted on October 9, 2003
Filed Under Bad Things | Leave a Comment

Great - from GetTheDrift.com, on the growing number of people who have a big problem with PowerPoint.

PowerPoint as a crutch…

Remember the boring teacher you had in high school who would constantly resort to films to bail himself out of class? To the weak or inexperienced seller, PowerPoint is the ultimate shield… a way to avoid the messy business of real human interaction. Instead of looking the customer in the eye, you both start looking at a common screen. Kind of like your family all staring at the tube instead of talking, now isn’t it?

and a Resource Drain…

If your marketing or sales support teams are in the business of churning out PowerPoint Presentations, you need to consider the important work they’re not doing.

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