New Media Newsletter

Virginia Press Association, March 2007              

Virginia Online News

 

Daily Press Launches Online Morning Edition

 

 

The Daily Press in Hampton Roads has launched a morning-news initiative, called the Now Edition, to post more breaking-news updates to its web site during the hours of peak web visits, between 7 a.m. and early afternoon. The desk, headed by veteran business editor Steve Rocca, includes a reporter and a web producer. The team strives to have original, updated content on www.dailypress.com before 7 a.m.. The team’s work supplements the existing flow of updates to the site once the newsroom fully staffs up mid-morning.

 

Online traffic invariably peaks in morning hours, spiking when as office workers get to their jobs and again at lunch hour. But consumer research also shows that most users tend to think of newspaper web sites as mere static recreations of that morning’s newspaper.

 

The Now Desk is designed to combat that perception, said dailypress.com General Manager Lisa Bohnaker, and is part of a Tribune Company initiative to treat the company’s newspaper websites as full, complementary partners to the print editions. Gannett recently announced similar efforts at its 90 daily newspapers.

 

Initial results from the Daily Press efforts are encouraging – while no fresh consumer research has been conducted since the initiative began, online traffic (measured in page views and site visitors) have increased by double-digit percentages since the flow of updates began, Bohnaker said.

 

- Tom Davidson

 

 

Industry Briefs         

 

 

 

USAToday.com Relaunches Site to Mixed Reviews

 

 

The reviews are mixed for USA Today’s new Web site. The newspaper officially launched its redesign this week, adding social networking, story comments, user-generated content and more to USAToday.com. (See the March 2 Online Publishing Update for more on the launch.) Many bloggers mentioned the publication’s effort to include Web 2.0 features is impressive, though a few blogs reported some difficulties.

 

 

- NAA Online Publishing Update <//font></><//><//font></><//>

 

 

 

 Newspapers Outsell TV with Online Video Ads

 

 

 

According to a new report from Borrell Associates, local online video advertising, worth about $161 million in 2006, is expected to grow to $371 million this year, or 5% of all local online advertising, and to exceed $5 billion in next five years.

 

In 2006 the market for locally targeted online video ads became a legitimate market in Chicago , New York and Los Angeles (the three largest markets) worth more than $5 million each. The next 37 largest markets each saw more than $1 million in revenue from online video, according to Borrell. The study claims that "infomercials" are said to drive the increase in the advertising market, not traditional 15-second commercials

 

- Center for Media Research

 

<//font></><//> Eastern Weekly

Newspaper Sites

 

 

 

Virginia weeklies are well represented on the Web. Check out the sites below from the eastern region of the state:

 

 

Eastern Shore News

 

 

 

Gloucester-Mathews Gazettle-Journal

 

 

Southside Sentinel

 

 

Sussex-Surry Dispatch

 

 

Tidewater Review

 

 

The Virginia Gazette

 

 

York Town Crier/The Poquoson Post

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Site Focus:

RegisterBee.com 

 

Noteworthy features of the Danville Register & Bee site include:

 

- Integration with WSLS.com in Roanoke and NewsAdvance.com in Lynchburg.

 

- Sophisticated search engine from Autonomy.

 

- Cell phone headline alerts.

 

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Send Us Your Briefs

 

 

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, subscribe or unsubscribe to Scott Bateman.

 

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