2008 Newspaper Ratings Report

Scarborough Research has released its 2008 report on audience penetration of newspapers in 161 U.S. metropolitan areas.

The Scarbourough Newspaper Audience Ratings Report 2008 provides data on 161 newspapers in 81 markets, including:

• the number of adults in the market area (and percentage of the overall adult population) who have "read or looked into" the daily or Sunday edition of the newspaper within the past 5 weekdays or past Sunday;
• the number and percentage of area adults who have visited the newspaper's website(s) in the past 7 days; and
• the integrated audience -- the number and percentage of area adults who have read
  the printed newspaper or visited the newspaper’s website(s), or did both,
  during the past seven days.

The report is organized by Designated Market Area (a Nielsen category) and includes newspapers whose websites have at least 1% penetration in their market, as well as a Sunday print edition.

Finding Political News Online, the Young Pass It On

From today's New York Times:

"It is not news that young politically minded viewers are turning to alternative sources like YouTube, Facebook and late-night comedy shows like “The Daily Show.” But that is only the beginning of how they process information.

According to interviews and recent surveys, younger voters tend to be not just consumers of news and current events but conduits as well — sending out e-mailed links and videos to friends and their social networks. And in turn, they rely on friends and online connections for news to come to them. In essence, they are replacing the professional filter — reading The Washington Post, clicking on CNN.com — with a social one."

Read the full article.

State of the News Media 2008

The Project for Excellence in Journalism has posted its State of the News Media 2008 report online.

The fifth annual report aims "to gather in one place as much data as possible about all the major sectors of journalism, to identify trends, mark key indicators, note areas for further inquiry and provide a resource for citizens, journalists and researchers."

Section of the report cover newspapers; online news; network, cable, and local TV; radio; magazines; and ethnic media. Each section includes content analysis as well as looks at audience, economics, ownership and more.

"If It Catches My Eye": Teens and Online News

Teenagers aren’t much into following serious news online, but news organizations can – and should – cultivate their interest, according to a new report from the Media Management Center at Northwestern University.

The report, "If It Catches My Eye: An Exploration of Online News Experiences of Teenagers," is based on a study of 65 Chicago-area teens conducted last year. Among its findings:

• *Teens are not interested enough to go out of their way for "serious" news. So whatever news pops up in front of them when they turn on their computers – usually the large Internet portals and news aggregators – is what they see.
• *At the same time, teens are "interestable." They will look at many different kinds of news online if it captures their attention – with subjects that interest them, video, pictures, the right topics, humorous and weird news and new things.
• *News organizations should listen to teens and actively develop new products, campaigns and initiatives aimed at attracting teens to the news, “catching the eye" and then deepening their interest by focusing on subjects teens are most interested in, providing the features and functionalities they like, and building on their interest in humor.
• *News content should be placed on sites where teens spend their time.
• *Programs should be developed to decrease teens' angst about the news.

See the full report online for more.

Times to Stop Charging for Parts of Its Web Site

Two years after making parts of its Web site -- including its columnists -- available only to paying customers, the New York Times is abandoning its subscription-based TimesSelect service at midnight tonight.

All parts of the site, as well the Times archives from 1851-1922 and from 1987 to the present, will be available at no cost. (BC users have access to the Times via various databases, including scanned images of every article from 1851 to 2004 via ProQuest Historical Newspapers.)

The Wall Street Journal, the only major paper still charging for access to most of its Web site, is discussing whether to continue that practice, says the Times, noting that Rupert Murdoch, whose News Corp. is taking over the Journal, has mentioned the possibility of making the online version of the paper free.

• Times to Stop Charging for Parts of Its Web Site, New York Times
• 'All the News That's Fit to Print' for Free, Forbes
• Times Ends Fee on TimesSelect Content, Washington Post
  

Washington Post Issue Coverage Tracker

The Washington Post Web site has introduced an Issue Coverage Tracker that graphically displays the amount of coverage each of the presidential candidates is receiving on the campaign trail.

The version below, which the Post makes available for posting on blogs and Web sites, lets you see a breakdown of stories, issue-by-issue, about each candidate over the past two months. Go to the full version for different options and more advanced features. It's worth a look.



The application, according to the Post, draws from the Web sites of "a wide variety of sources across the political spectrum [including] news organizations, political parties, interest groups, bloggers, unions, trade organizations, candidates, activists, and more."

JibJab Animation: What We Call the News

Are You Paying Attention?

Who has a greater attention span, people reading news online or those reading it in print?

Some surprising results from a new study by the Poynter Institute.

The Newspaper is Dead: Read All About It!

If newspapers, as we so often hear, are dead or dying, why are there so many of them in the BC Libraries? And why should you care?

Check out my article in the latest edition of ugrads@bc.library, the Libraries' undergraduate newsletter, to learn how newspapers can help you and how new kinds of access make them usable in ways that couldn’t have been conceived just a few years ago.

Also in this edition:

- Plagiarsm, Cheating, Academic Integrity. What's It All About: Online Tutorial to Debut in Fall of 2007

- Stephen Walsh: Student, Athlete, Library Employee!

- The O'Neill Library Media Center: Things You Didn't Know About It

- O'Neill (Thomas P.) at the O'Neill

....and more.

The Future of News

What is the future of news?

PBS' Frontline tries to answer that question in News War, a four-part series beginning tonight and a companion News War Web site.

The site will include online viewing of the full series (Parts I & II are now available) as well as transcripts of interviews with 50 major players in the debates over the role of media in U.S. society.