New Media Newsletter

Virginia Press Association, February 2007         

Virginia Online News Briefs

 

Roanoke Times Wins Digital Edge Award

 

 

The Roanoke Times won the Digital Edge Best Overall News Site award in the 75,000 to 250,000 circulation category at the NAA’s Connections new media conference in Las Vegas last week. WashingtonPost.com won the same award for newspapers with more than 250,000 circulation.

 

 

 

HamptonRoads.com Offers Valentine E-Cards for Military

 

 

A service at The Virginia-Pilot’s city guide allows residents to send digital Valentine’s Day cards to military people overseas.

 

 

 

Times-Dispatch Launches Group of Blogs

 

 

On Jan. 31 the site launched seven community pages housed within DiscoverRichmond.com, the city guide companion site to TimesDispatch.com. These pages contain features and photos from Richmond metro communities, along with community blogs that residents of these areas can use to post their news. In addition to the community blogs, the site also launched a family of topical blogs.

 

          - Mary Ellin Arch

 

 

 

 

Industry Briefs         

 

 

Record Number of Monthly Unique Visitors to Newspaper Web Sites

 

 

 

In the fourth quarter of 2006, monthly unique visitors to newspaper Web sites averaged more than 57.6 million – a record number. “According to the data, which is part of a new report by Nielsen//NetRatings for the Newspaper Association of America and takes into account home and work Internet usage, this represents a 6.9 percent increase over the same period last year (53.6 million). In a year-over-year comparison, the average unique audience for newspaper Web sites grew by more than 10 million in 2006, an increase of more than 22 percent over 2005 numbers,” according to an NAA press release.

 

 

 

Online Ad Spending Projected to Grow by Nearly 20%

 

 

 

     A survey of advertisers who control $6.5 billion in spending projects that the print and broadcast shares of US ad budgets will continue to decline in 2007, while the online ad share grows. The "Annual Ad Spending Study 2007," from Outsell, shows that US companies plan to increase their online spending by 18% this year, more than for any other major media type.            www.EMarketer.com

   

 

Bad Web Experience Impacts Brick and Mortar Shopping

 

 

 

    According to their recent national Online Customer Experience Survey, Allurent, Inc. reports the study revealed that 41% of consumers in 2006 (compared to 28% in 2005) said a frustrating online experience would make them less likely to shop at that retailer's physical store. And, overwhelming, 82% of consumers surveyed reveal a frustrating shopping experience will make them less likely to return to a retailers' site. In addition, 59% say this experience negatively impacts their overall opinion of the retailer/brand.            www.MediaPost.com  

 

 

Related: SEO Rated Best-Performing Online Marketing Tactic

 

 

 

 

Marketers reported that search engine optimization is one of the best-performing online marketing tactics, according to eMarketer. Paid search ads and in-house e-mail lists were also rated highly. The worst performers: rented e-mail lists and pop-up/pop-under ads. Responses were skewed, eMarketer reported, because “the sample consisted of the early-adopter ad:tech audience — not the whole marketing world."

              www.EMarketer.com Useful Tips 

 

It’s Easy to Add Google Maps

 

 

Adding Google maps to your web stories to help readers figure out locations is easy.

 

Just copy the link to the map from Google and add a link to the address in the story.

 

The News & Advance is beginning to do this routinely, especially for breaking news.

             - Joe Stinnett <//span>

 

 

 

  _____  

 

 

Site Focus:

Roanoke.com 

 

Noteworthy features of the Roanoke Times site include:

 

- Sophisticated slide show presentation 

 

-Message boards

 

-Daily video broadcasts

 

- Blogs

 

  _____  

 

 

Send Us Your Briefs – and We Don’t Mean Underwear

 

 

 

We are always in need of any item about your site, other sites in Virginia or items you think will be of interest to the new media efforts of Virginia newspapers.

 

Send your brief, which should be less than 100 words, to Scott Bateman.

 

You can click on the link as well to request a subscription to this newsletter.

 

 

 

 

Thu, Dec. 04, 2008