THE ROAD AHEAD FOR DIGITAL AND ONLINE NEWSPAPERS

Paid-for content

• Many newspaper web sites have, over the last few years, developed a business model which incorporates the sale of some form of content online

• Paid-for content on newspaper web sites is not always news-based. Selling access to crosswords, for example, has proved a successful model for several broadsheet newspapers

• Paid-for content is simply one element which can be included in this mix - other key elements include display advertising/sponsorship and recruitment advertising

• Most current newspaper paid-for services are relatively small-scale offerings, available for amounts ranging from less than UKP1 (access to one article for 24 hours, for example) to around UKP200 (annual subscriptions), but rarely higher than that

• Newspapers can be grouped into several sub-divisions, each of which displays distinctive characteristics when it comes to charging for content and other online services

Online advertising

• Online advertising reached record levels in the first half of 2003, with a spend of UKP151.6 million and a market share of the total advertising market of 2%

• In the newspaper industry, as in other sectors, behavioural advertising is a growing advertising format, albeit currently in a relatively basic form

• Finding a way of measuring and describing online ad formats that makes sense to those used to buying advertising in offline media has become a key focus within the advertising industry

Digital editions

• Digital editions (also known as e-ditions, e-editions, electronic editions and replica editions) are a relatively new concept. As all the names suggest it is a digital replica of a newspaper (or magazine) edition available on screen

• Context is one of the key advantages a digital edition offers over a newspaper web site

• However, the immediacy of the internet and electronic delivery is lost with digital editions - news is hours old at best, not minutes or seconds

• For publishers, digital editions offer a multitude of benefits including the ability to deliver a newspaper anywhere with considerably lower costs than a newsprint edition

• Subscription charges for digital editions of UK newspapers range from daily (the Daily Telegraph is the only UK newspaper to offer this option to date) to annually. The Times and the Sunday Times offer an interesting combination of one-off weekly and monthly fees as well as monthly and annual payment schemes

Online newspapers in Europe

• Few online newspapers in Europe expect, at present, to generate significant revenues from selling subscriptions or access to their content online

• In common with other newspapers around the world, those in Europe are struggling with falling circulation figures and are trying hard to use their online services as a means by which they can secure a future for their publication

• European newspapers have faced competition from a range of online players, including the major portals. One factor, however, which differentiates the US and European markets is the importance in Europe of public service broadcasters

• Most online newspapers in Europe operate on a much smaller scale than their US counterparts

The Future

• The advent of online publishing seemed to many newspaper owners to be the beginning of a new dawn, an era in which newspapers could begin serving the readership online, in particular the younger demographic who were perceived, during the early years of the internet, to be the core group of users

• However, it now appears that if newspapers want to be able to charge for more types of content, they may have to look more innovatively at creating entirely new offerings, since leaving the core content free is vital to their online brands and continuing success

• Until now most online newspaper operations have been run very much as complementary offerings to the print produ