Online versus Print: Top Indian Financial Newspapers audience comparison

As a PR professional the simplest industry standard of measuring coverage I have come across has been advertising value equivalent (AVE), which loosely translates to the amount you would have to spend to buy the same space as the article appeared in a print publication.

It is only recently we have started to wonder what impact an article would have if it is carried in the online edition.

Most Indian publications treat their online editions as an extension of their print counterpart. Many of these media houses had a head start in the online space with the Hindu launching its online edition way back in 1995. But, in terms of innovation and adapting new emerging realities of web 2.0 there is a gross disconnect.

The lacks of interactivity and underleveraged potential of citizen journalism are two broad negatives that stick out like a wart. This may be due to the restrain on the part of media companies to hire new media professionals who understand the new form of reportage due to the supply-demand pressure and unproven economies of scale.

As opinions in the article “Why are print dailies so conservative with their online editions?” on exchange4media.com suggests:

A senior executive of an online firm says, “It’s like a chicken and egg situation. Media companies do not intend to have a separate sales and content team for the online edition, apprehending that the expenses can’t be recovered. Similarly, without a dedicated team, they can’t look at earning sizeable revenue from the online venture.”

“It’s also because many print media owners have already burnt their fingers during the dotcom boom, which is why they are extra cautious while implementing any online plan,” says another media observer.

So how do the online editions fare vis-à-vis their print avatars. This has been a question in my mind for a long time. Quite frankly I hoped some one could come up with this analysis and save me the trouble!

Method in madness
I compared the traffic statistics of leading English language Financial Dailies in Mumbai - in terms of brand equity and circulation. I picked financial dailies considered as they are considered as the bastion of corporate voice and have a stickiness factor when it comes to reading habits of their core audiences. Think of a “suit” headed to work with a copy of The Economic Times safely tucked away under his arm.

A comparison between their print and online editions should give an insight into their relevance to their target audiences which is mostly a captive demographic which has about 9 -10 hours of internet access at workplace and is often the sole source of news based information.

The English language Financial Dailies I chose are as follows:
The Hindu Business Line,
The Financial Express,
The Economic Times,
Mint and
Business Standard

Comparison was done using three free web analytics tools Alexa, Compete and Google trends for websites.

Below are the print circulation figures of these financial dailies as of 2009. The source is a leading PR measurement company based in Mumbai.


The Alexa Site comparisons are as follows


This is how they fare on Compete


And lastly Google trends



Google trends and Alexa (free analytics tool) do not map sub-domains (at least to my knowledge) so there may be a noise in the numbers for The Economic Times which is hosted on http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/ and not www.indiatimes.com as it is compared on these tools.

Here’s a look on the numbers on Google trends without The Economic Times (Indiatimes) websites:


Findings
1. The most widely read financial publication The Economic Times has a total circulation of 2,30,000+/- in Mumbai while the online edition has the average monthly unique traffic of 1,50,000+/- (compete)

2. The Hindu Business Line with a circulation of 19,000+ in Mumbai is the lowest within current parameters. Its online edition generates average monthly unique traffic of 30,000+/- to 40,000+/-

3. Mint, which has undertaken a lot of social media initiatives on their website including the popular livemint radio by Kamla Bhatt, of the Kamla Show fame, has an almost equivalent circulation and traffic of 50,000+/- in their print and online editions.

In the same context, blogger and social media consultant Kiruba Shankar is involved with the podcast show with Business Standard, who opines "Less than 1 per cent of the total news content generated on the newspaper websites is powered by citizen journalists." [See Exchage4media article below]

Conclusion
1. Print publications in India clearly are at par and even doing a lot better in terms of audiences as compared to their online editions.

2. The clear advantage of online medium such as interactivity, dynamic multimedia content, search engine optimization, user generated content etc. are grossly underleveraged and may be the reason for the for their inability to drive proportionate traffic

3. The stickiness of print publications amongst people interested in financial news is high, which also indicates a slight preference in the favour of newspaper over online editions

4. Also, The Long Tail of online financial media in India may be a reason for this fragmented audience overlay. The leaders w.r.t access to corporate news Moneycontrol.com, Capitalmarket.com, India Infoline, Rediff Business, BSE India, etc. are popular and enjoy a loyal user base as they provide interactive content which an end user can access as per his discretion and requirements – in packets on media bytes & sections - at a time when he pleases to.

What does this mean?
While it is a forgone conclusion that print publications need to pay attention to their web properties and make them profitable by adopting web 2.0 technologies and evangelizing them down to the reporters on field.

Online media, no doubt needs to figure in the media plan of PR professionals in the financial sector, a mix of both print and online would be the ideal in achieving the desired mindshare.

Notes
You may visit the following links for further details:
Why print dailies are so conservative in their online editions
[Exchange4Media] [March 12 2009]

Growth for Newspapers Online? Yes and No.
[Brian Solis PR2.0]
[Jan 28 2009]

Word of advise
These figures are from reliable industry sources and free web analytics tools. So there may be a little noise while reporting the figures and must be understood in this context. Nonetheless, these trends, act as guidelines to the broader picture.

News feeds subscription to the online editions have not been factored which again may cloud the figures as some people may choose to read their news in feed readers rather than visit the website.

Collaborative efforts to refine the findings of this analysis are most welcome. Write to me at hemantmorajkar [at] gmail[dot] com or tweet me @HemantM

This is a chronicle of my experiments with social media, web 2.0 and digital communications which details industry updates and analysis from India and around the world

Mea Culpa: Lessons learnt from a blogging break

As a social media practitioner and a communications person, I often find myself advising people to stay connected and contribute to the broader blogosphere and the micro blog community in which they exist. Which indicates, that one must keep publishing fresh work, filled with insight, opinions, views, and just about everything under the sun at regular time periods.

The advantage is not only that you retain your reader's interest but also, search engines love updated content and crawl your property often.

By default and not design, if you noticed, the last post I have written on this blog is Feb 1 2009!!
It's just a matter of hectic scheduling and work-life priorities which kept me from crushing plastic with flesh.

Also, I did not wish to give in and add to the "lazysphere" by merely adding commentary to the current happenings and trending topics. Don't get me wrong am not as dead against it as Steve Rubel, but I see his point of view. Especially when I am forced to drudge through mediocrity to get to a great piece of work. But, then who doesn't!! And if you look closer, 50% of content (may be higher) is merely a re-hash of other people's stuff.

So here are a few lessons I learnt by not blogging for a month from a social media practioner's point of view:

1) Feeling of disconnect - I suddenly feel disconnected from the while blogging expereince. Obsessive bloggers claim to have withdrawal like symtoms akin to withdrawal symtoms felt by an addict while discontinuing drug usage. In the first 10 minutes I found it difficult to reconnect with my blogging roots. I realize it's taking me a lot longer to compose this post.

2) Feeling od detachment - This may be a good thing now, that I suddenly feel detached from my blog. Something which I was vehemently posseeive about a while earlier. Well...it's all coming back now!!

3) Embassement - Now this one is obvious. Do I need explain more??

4) Writing - Not that I consider my work here, a Shakesperean effort, but I do miss the writing and articulation of ideas as they float through my head.

5) Referencing towards better understanding - I know this one's sounds a little complicated, but it's quite simple really. I link and reference content which I have gone through and taken the time to understand. By not blogging, I an just skimming the surface of data that comes my way and leave it in the "later box" for a revisit

6) 'Link Love' and Comments - Not much link love or comments here yet, but yeah we do write for an audience don't we...

P.S. The term blogging break returns about 7,420,000 results on Google

Update 1: March 09 2009 18:10 - Just came across a re blog tool by Zemanta. Where you can jusy Talk about Aiding and abating the laziness. :P We have moved to a slothosphere with this!!!

This is a chronicle of my experiments with social media, web 2.0 and digital communications which details industry updates and analysis from India and around the world

Full Monty, Not Quite: Social Media disclosure policies

The myth of complete disclosure while engaging on behalf of clients or self in Indian social media prevails. We all mean good and some of us do follow the guidelines. But if you take a closer look, you'll find that we are secretive and deeply mistrusting

I was reading an interesting link post which is a collections of social media policy adopted by organizations and individuals.

I am to come across such broad policy and guidelines issued by Indian corporates. If I stand corrected do leave a link.

With the inclusion of NDA 's - Non Disclosure Agreement, for the uninitiated - in the scope of work contracts of most social media firms, there is little known on the "how" and "under what parameters" of what is being implemented in the Indian space.

I am not sure if social media usage policy and guidelines figure on the priority list of most practitioners or if it is merely a passing thought.

This is a chronicle of my experiments with social media, web 2.0 and digital communications which details industry updates and analysis from India and around the world

Mediaah again: Indian blogospehere takes on NDTV

In the recent controversy which took the Indian blogosphere by storm, a classical David (Blogger C.Kunte) versus Goliath (NDTV), where the blogger had to post an unconditional apology for his criticism of NDTV, Managing Editor, Barkha Dutt.

During my initial interview while enrolling in my Journo school, I was asked to write a 1500 word piece on The Times of India. In my heyday of anti establishment pro-libertarian idealism, inspired by the raspy tones of Bob Dylan, I came up with a piece called 'The Times they are a changing'.

Incensed by Medianet and a percieved unipolar media space back then in Mumbai, or so I thought, I came across the infamous Mediaah! blog controversy and the person at the centre of the storm a cerain Mr. Pradyuman Maheshwari.

When I heard about the entire NDTV-Ckunte fiasco, his feud with TOI is what came to mind. Both parties have moved on since then and Mr. Maheshwari has joined as the Editor-in-Chief of Exchange4Media.

Here's a para by my erstwhile rockstar, which is duely posted on E4M, in a piece titled 'Why face booker's and bloggers love to hate Barkha Dutt'

As someone who has had to pay much in legal fees for what I have written on a weblog, I do realise that a blog or a Facebook/ messageboard comment is as liable for legal action as is a comment in mainstream media – print, radio or television. I must confess I got carried away a few times on Mediaah!, a blog-based media site that I would run (2003-05), and when I did a fair bit of homework on the issue, I realised that my consistent criticism of certain entities could be construed as a slanderous campaign against them. And, rightly so.

Well the entire piece which gives a crib-by-crib account and is some what defensive about the whole thing. It's true that a minimum amount of perspective is necessary to objectively understand the position taken by NDTV. It is quite surprising that the voice of restrain emerges out of the most daring and talked about cowboy this side of media.

You can view the entire article by P. Maheshwari on E4M here

Gaurav Mishra, on his blog Gauravnomics, has a complete and probably the best overview on the NDTV-C. Kunte controversy on his blog which can be viewed here.

This is a chronicle of my experiments with social media, web 2.0 and digital communications which details industry updates and analysis from India and around the world

Mobile internet users to take over Internet landlubbers?

Def - Internet landlubber: Person hooked on to terrestrial connections (Dial-up, broad band...) and views any form of satellite or wireless internet usage as a disruption or a compromise to his/her user experience.

The mobile internet revolution is on an upswing. The ground realities of Indian digital technologies and infrastructure availability makes it a virtual no brainier that mobile internet wins hands down over terrestrial connections.

There are about 300+ million mobile phone users to about 5+ million broad band users in India (ref: medianama reports and numbers) which brings the comparative user ratio to 60:1 which is uncharacteristically high for a single medium and unlikely to be surpassed within the next decade.

E4M ran a article titled 'Mobile internet active users to surpass that of traditional Internet users'
which forecasts the upswing and urges advertisers to embrace the digital medium on the whole in order to gain strategic and measurable communication advantage over traditional media.

Here's what the interviewees had to say on mobile internet being more sustainable than broadband

Tewari of mKhoj said, “Yes, mobile Internet is the way forward and I do believe that the Internet story will only be true from mobile and not PC. It will be the wireless Internet and not wire Internet, and it will be more sustainable because the sustainability comes consumers and if there are more consumers on the ecosystem then that means that there will be more content, more advertisers and more money. So, that is why the Internet story from the wireless side will be a sustainable one in this country.”

Popli of Star India said, “Absolutely yes, the first experience of the Internet will be that mostly entrants will be on the mobile phone, because the mobile phone far more affordable and lucrative device than a computer. We still haven’t solved our electricity problem, so unless we have a laptop that runs on battery power and is long lasting, the mobile phone is probably the best friend of the Internet in small towns and cities for surfing the net. Therefore, mobile Internet going be significantly larger than the broadband Internet.”

Vartikar of Mauj Mobile said, “Both broadband Internet and mobile Internet have their own uses. The form factor (display/ keyboard) of mobile has limitations as compared to the PC. At the same time, the PC is restricted by its cost and the single utility that it offers, unlike the mobile, wherein browsing or mobile Internet is an add-on for most Indians. Today speeds are not beneficial to people spending time on mobile Internet, but the advent of 3G and higher bandwidth may well change that. Also, as form factors improve (large screens with touch utility) for the mobile, we will see a major shift in how the mobile is used more and more for browsing.”


I partially agree with his agreement. As far as my convenience and user experience is concerned, I will always look for a bigger screen and easily accessible buttons for doing my work. Unless the mobile screens get bigger, which would kill the purpose of a mobile, I am not buying int o this argument. Connectivity - sure. Actual work - Not really.

What's your take...

You can read the entire E4M article here [Link]

P.S. For all you Smart Alec's wondering why I refer to e4m and afaqs in my write-ups...Well, I am a PR guy after all :P Old habits die hard:) !!

This is a chronicle of my experiments with social media, web 2.0 and digital communications which details industry updates and analysis from India and around the world