SNPA Convention Update: Newspapers and the Internet - Where Are We In 2007?

While a few newspapers are being successful in extending their audience reach through their Web sites, most newspapers are only picking up an additional 1-3 percent of the market through their online efforts, Walter E. Hussman Jr., publisher of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette (Little Rock), told publishers at last week's SNPA Annual Convention.

He said The Atlanta (Ga.) Journal-Constitution reaches 17 percent of its market with ajc.com. Combined with the paper's 47 percent reach with its print edition and taking into account the 53 percent that is unduplicated (print and online), online readers account for an additional 6 percent of readers.

The Washington (D.C.) Post, Tampa (Fla.) Tribune and The Oklahoman (Oklahoma City) each achieve 4 percent incremental increases with online products.

Citing a Creative Destruction report, Hussman said newspapers can't succeed simply by replacing their hard-copy readers with online readers ... It estimates that a newspaper would have to attract two or three dozen online readers to make up for - in terms of advertising revenue - the loss of a single hard-copy reader.

Hussman also looked at the Top 10 online news destinations, calling three of the companies "free-riders" who don't employ a single reporter: Yahoo! News, AOL News and Google News.

He proposed that The Associated Press use the content generated by newspapers to create the world's greatest Web site, saying: "I think there would be an avalanche of users who would go there. It could generate a lot of revenue - maybe hundreds of millions of dollars" that could be shared by AP and the contributing newspapers.

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