STATS: Web Magazine Reach, Users and Minutes Up in 2008

Ed: Overall growth is over 30%. Thus, magazines have shrinking share.

Web Magazine Reach, Users and Minutes Up in 2008

from Research Brief by Jack Loechner

Web Magazine Reach, Users and Minutes Up in 2008

According to Magazine Publishers of America,  consumer magazine websites averaged 70.7 million unique monthly visitors during the first quarter of 2008, an 11.9% increase over the same period in 2007. This gain reflects more than three times the rate of growth for the overall U.S. Internet audience, which rose 3.7% in the first quarter.

The analysis also showed that:

• The average first quarter monthly reach for magazine websites grew to 43.4% of the total U.S. Internet population, up from 40.2% in 2007
• Magazine website users accounted for an average of more than 497.3 million total sessions per month during the first quarter, a 16.3% improvement over the same period last year
• Visitors to magazine websites spent an average of 2.3 billion minutes per month during the first quarter, resulting in a 16.7% increase versus the same period in 2007

Nina Link, President and Chief Executive Officer, Magazine Publishers of America, concludes "Magazine brands online are getting ‘stickier' with web audiences… Publishers are increasingly employing the latest digital innovations to broaden their reach and appeal… "

Göteborg: Google on Journalism 2.0

from editorsweblog

Nikesh Arora, President EMEA Operations & Vice President, Google Inc., UK, presented participants at the 15th World Editors Forum with food for thought as to the way in which the media consumption habits and the media landscape in general have radically transformed with Web 2.0. Arora opened the Forum's first session, entitled "Will Web 2.0 give birth to Journalism 2.0?"...

Opportunities: 
1. 1.3 billion people are connected to the Internet. Every media outlet now has a true global audience.
2. People around the world want to participate, they want to be engaged with the news. Media companies can leverage their participation for more complete coverage.

Challenges: 
1. Un-bundling the package: where media companies have traditionally published general information, now it easy to find specific information on virtually any topic consumers desire. 
2. Brand challenge - publishers' brand are associated with trust and credibility. What publishers need to figure out is what their brand means on the Web.
3. Multimedia is rapidly becoming the norm across media that were traditionally separate. 
4. What is the business model of the future? Arora believed that there are means of monetizing content on the Web. 

@ WAN: 'Newspapers A Growth Business'? Reports Of Demise Exaggerated? Probably Not

from paidContent.org by Robert Andrews

But that's the spin World Association of Newspapers (WAN) CEO Timothy Balding tried to put on the state of the business in a keynote here at Gothenburg. "They say that newspaper in print is almost dead - well, I can't see it myself," he told a packed auditorium of inky execs. "And no matter how many times I hear it, the figures just don't match it. There's been a slight decline, but still nothing incredibly dramatic." In truth, the picture is far more nuanced...read the rest of this here on PCUK.

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Ed: Ostrich.