AROUND THE GLOBE, NEWSPAPERS UNCERTAIN ABOUT WEB

By: Martha L. Stone A Report From The WAN Conference



Meeting in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, this week, the World Association of
Newspapers (WAN) focused its attention on the Internet. A sweeping
survey of global newspapers presented at the conference found much
angst and uncertainty over the digital future.



'Amidst the current 'culture of abundance,' many newspaper leaders have
great uncertainty about the future,' said Juan Antonio Giner,
Innovation's founder, in the summary of his second annual report. 'It's
the Internet - the El Nino of the news media - that has
industry executives rattled.'



Conducted in March by Leo Bogart for the Innovation International Media
Consulting Group, the online survey was completed by 550 newspaper and
online news executives. The key findings focus on profitability,
advertising, staffing, and Web site traffic.



Fifteen percent of the respondents' Web sites are profitable, and 22%
are breaking even - with higher profitability reported in North
America (25%), compared with 7% in Europe and just 2% in Latin America.
Meanwhile, more than half of North American sites report they are
losing money, along with three quarters of European sites and nearly
two-thirds of Latin American sites.


Lack of profitability is attributed mostly to lack of advertising. In
this global survey, one online news site in seven carries no
advertising. On the sites that have advertising, three-fourths have a
sales staff separate from the print side. About 90%, however, have
fewer than 10 sales people.



A more detailed survey was e-mailed to 169 industry executives and
experts in nearly 30 countries (98 responded). Eighty-three percent of
the executives interviewed in the spun-off survey expect revenues and
profits for Internet news operations to be better in the next five
years, while only 18% and 35%, respectively, were projected for family-

owned and newspaper-chain operations. The outlook for advertising in
the next five years is optimistic for online operations, but
pessimistic for newspapers, particularly family-owned newspapers.



Revenues and profits

BetterSameNot as Good

Family Newspapers10 33 24

Newspaper chains33 30 31

Broadcast TV24 36 33

Cable TV 53 26 12

Magazines 19 43 31

Radio 18 47 28

Internet 83 8 2



Barry Sussman, a former top Washington Post editor, led the
charge for the follow-up survey. 'While newspapers are doing well,
there is a high degree of uncertainty about the Internet,' he said.
'Looking ahead, the Internet has everybody confused.'



The follow-up survey also homed in on staffing and journalism quality.
While the prospect for getting and keeping bright reporters and editors
in the next five years was positive for Internet news operations, the
prospect for family-owned newspapers was grim.



Getting and keeping bright reporters and editors



BetterSameNot as Good

Family Newspapers 18% 34% 46%

Newspaper chains 35 49 15

Broadcast TV 31 45 19

Cable TV 45 38 13

Magazines 27 52 19

Radio 15 56 26

Internet 83 6 9





The quality of news reporting

BetterSameNot as Good

Family Newspapers24 46 21

Newspaper chains44 37 11

Broadcast TV22 45 24

Cable TV 28 42 20

Magazines 33 48 10

Radio 20 61 10

Internet 87 3 1





Other key findings from the report:



? Respondents said many Web sites are still not as up-to-date as other
news sources. About half of newspaper Web sites (and three-fourths of
the largest operations) are updated either continually or several times
a day. The remainder still only update sporadically.



How Often SiteIs UpdatedTotalEuropeNorth AmericaLatin AmericaRest of World

Continually 29% 36% 20% 37% 37%

Several x/day 19% 22% 16% 21% 18%

Daily 46% 34% 60% 37% 35%

Less often 6% 6% 4% 5% 10%



? Online news staffs remain small. Three-fourths of all newspaper Web
sites overall, and 85% of those North America, have five or fewer
editorial employees. Only 1% have more than 50.


Editorial StaffTotalEuropeNorth AmericaLatin AmericaRest of World

5 or less 74% 69% 85% 51% 63%

6-10 9% 10% 5% 23% 10%

11-20 10% 14% 5% 16% 15%

21-50 5% 4% 4% 7% 9%

Over 50 1% 1% 1% 2% 3%





? Online news sites are creating their own brand of journalism. A
fourth of the sites surveyed regularly create stories that do not
appear in the printed newspaper. About one-fourth never do.


More online at http://www.innovacion.com.