The Death of Print – top and bottom newspaper publications online influence ranked

(St. Louis, MO – April 2, 2009) Predictions of the death of the American newspaper are appearing with greater frequency, along with the actual demise of several well known dailies. Interactive market research expert Jay Byrne explores aspects of why the Internet is beating print – even as more traditional news publications move online – in an analytic commentary available at www.v-Fluence.com.

Using online research from v-Fluence Interactive, the firm’s CEO shows how most traditional publications fail to effectively monetize content online as they have yet to perfect the basic mission of successful Web publishing: Linking relevant content with relevant audiences for increased ROI opportunities for relevant advertisers.

v-Fluence research reveals how newspapers’ competitors are now more broadly defined as all content providers online, including consumer-generated media. The analysis includes research into the top and bottom major dailies when comparing daily online visitors with daily print circulation. Ranking the combined owners of multiple publications within the top 50 daily newspapers, v-Fluence reveals most holding companies appear to be consistently ineffective online, others have mixed results, and only a few are positive across all publications.

Byrne counsels, “Monetizing content via advertising and sponsorships requires effectively connecting that content with relevant potential customers, either via Web 1.0 interaction or more sophisticated Web 2.0 social interaction.”

Using a healthcare topic case study involving asthma content, the v-Fluence analysis compared the online influence and corresponding relevant advertising monetizing content on top new media content publishers compared with online newspapers. The New York Times online, for example, has more than 1.8 million pages of asthma-related content available – that’s 7,700 percent more than the 23,000 pages available from top-ranked Drugs.com. Yet Drugs.com enjoys a nearly inverse 7,000 percent more influence in this space. Drugs.com also appears to pay more attention to contextual advertising placements than the Times. Sites like Drugs.com are succeeding at doing what newspapers need to do online: Visibly linking relevant content with relevant audience for relevant advertisers.

Research by v-Fluence in a range of topic areas finds mainstream media content visibility and influence rarely exceeding 5 percent overall influence; whereas, topic-specific portals that monetize their content through targeted ads linking issues-focused consumers with relevant advertisers, frequently command greater than 25 percent visibility and influence.

Full report on the death of print available: http://www.v-fluence.com/blog/453/the-death-of-print.

v-Fluence Interactive
With locations in San Diego, St. Louis, Chicago, New York and Washington, DC, v-Fluence has been ranked as one of the fastest growing private companies in America by Inc. Magazine. v-Fluence provides major brands and organizations the online analytics, strategy development and execution they need to be measurably successful on the Web. For more, visit http://www.v-fluence.com. Find us on Twitter http://twitter.com/vFluence and Facebook http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/pages/v-Fluence-Interactive/12109305732.

Susan Luke
susan.luke@v-fluence.com
877-835-8362 Ext. 2041

This release was published on openPR.