How does your newspaper site stack up?
The Bivings Group has released a comprehensive study [PDF] on “the degree to which newspapers are embracing the Internet.” The study, which examines the Top 100 newspapers in terms of circulation, is an excellent one-stop shop to get ideas from other large newspapers’ practices. (Thanks to Desiree.)
The criteria of the study serves as a great list of basic technologies that newspaper sites should be offering (RSS feeds, story-level comments, blogs, most-popular lists, podcasts and more). Check out Mark Glaser’s breakdown of the study on PBS’ Mediashift.
Some of the report’s key findings:
- 76 of the nation’s top 100 newspapers offer RSS feeds on their Web sites.
- Only 31 of the papers offer podcasts.
- 80 of the papers offer at least one reporter-written blog
- Only 19 allowed readers to comment on the articles.
- And much more…
So why are these technologies not available on so many of the top newspaper sites? Is it primarily a lack of initiative, development staff or something else altogether?
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More Journalistopia:
[...] Thought of delivering ads through the feed? Now might be a good time to start considering the predicted increase in RSS users. Only 80 of the 100 largest newspapers are now delivering ads through RSS, according to a recent study by the Bivings Group. [...]