Comments on: Students Read Print, Non-Students Go Online: Go Figure!

By: Rethinking ways of generating revenue « Online Journalism Revenue Models

Rethinking ways of generating revenue « Online Journalism Revenue Models — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 09:58:44 +0000

[...] the audience and approach is different from what we’re used to with print. Chances are that your Web site users are parents and alumni, meaning that you can’t translate ads directly from print to [...]

By: Capturing value on your news Web site | CoPress

Capturing value on your news Web site | CoPress — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 19:02:30 +0000

By: Singapore College

Singapore College — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 06:30:24 +0000

A good informative blog with lots of new idea and approaches keep on doing the hard work…..

By: Andrew O'Dell

Andrew O'Dell — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 14:04:27 +0000

I’m not sure I’d say case closed, but I’m not convinced that print is dead quite yet. Will print change and evolve? Absolutely. And I think many college newspapers are probably serving their audiences better than commercial media, but that’s no reason to sit back and do nothing.

By: Ethan Klapper

Ethan Klapper — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 19:23:43 +0000

This all being said, we have yet to sell a single Web ad this year. All of our revenue comes from print ads.

The only ads on our site are national ads that the college media network inserts as part of the ad trade associated with that CMS.

By: Dan Reimold

Dan Reimold — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 17:12:32 +0000

Andrew,

Well put. So maybe maybe maybe, amid all the push for change/updating/Webifying, student papers are actually already giving people exactly what they want. Students/interested on-campus parties happily gobble up the print. People elsewhere and certain faculty/staff get what they want/need from the Web version. Case closed?

By: Andrew O'Dell

Andrew O'Dell — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 16:10:03 +0000

We see just the opposite of Mr. Klapper’s findings. Most of our traffic (up to two-thirds, in fact) is coming from outside of the university. There are always exceptions and each campus is going to have its own variations, but overall, I think Mr. Sawyer is correct. It’s also important to keep in mind that just because traffic is coming from a campus IP address doesn’t necessarily mean it’s students. We find that a lot of our faculty and staff read the paper online.

It’s definitely an interesting debate. And I don’t disagree with Dan, but the challenge is finding enough manpower and hours in the day to provide additional coverage. For many of us, we’re working with roughly the same size staff as a decade or so ago when there was no online site. It’s already a stretch to get a print edition out with relevant content that students will read, let alone producing additional content for alumni, parents, prospective students, community members, etc.

By: Dan Reimold

Dan Reimold — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 08:21:32 +0000

It’s truly an interesting debate! And even stepping back from determining the relative percentage of student-nonstudent readership online, just the fact that there apparently is a large sizable chunk of off-campus readers should be influencing online content. If these “outsiders” are visiting student press sites, it seems worthwhile to gauge their opinions on content and presentation and potentially use the findings to deliver a product that enables even more traffic/outside interest. The days of a student newspaper being a closed campus shop are over.

By: Ethan Klapper

Ethan Klapper — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 02:41:10 +0000

As the Web editor of The Eagle at American University, I can attest that Mr. Sawyer’s comments are incorrect. As Mr. Murley stated, we are able to look at IP address traffic via Google Analytics. Visits originating from our campus network easily outnumber the external visits.

Additionally, many people come to me and inform me that they don’t read our paper in print — they prefer to visit our Web site. Some people have the habit of checking our site right before they go to bed in the early morning hours of the days we publish.

Yes, it’s a bit of a niche audience, but we generate plenty of internal traffic to refute Mr. Sawyer’s comments.

-Ethan Klapper
American University
Washington, D.C.

By: Bryan Murley

Bryan Murley — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 00:51:18 +0000

There is a combination of factors that show the readership of online college sites. first is IP address. a site which has analytics will show how many are coming from on campus (I can see who’s reading my blog from our building at EIU), and the rest is from various surveys that have been done over the past several years. I’ve linked to a few on the ICM weblog – from CP and also Alloy. Also, larger campus pubs do readership surveys that show similar numbers.