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What are the benefits and disadvantages in established Australian newspapers such as The Australian, the Sydney Morning Herald and the Daily Telegraph running news websites, both for the readers and the companies themselves?

Across the globe, newspapers have begun to run websites that are an extension of themselves, including popular Australian newspapers such as The Australian, the Daily Telegraph and the Sydney Morning Herald. There are many benefits for companies doing this, including the appeal of web format, the implementation of multimedia and the immediacy of the news. However, these websites are struggling to find an appropriate way to make a profit.

Of the many appeals in newspapers to provide an online version of themselves, one of the most important is the site’s format. Most sites are easy to use, and have an advantage over print newspapers in that they allow for topics to be researched quickly without trouble. The home pages generally consist of teasers and tables of contents so that the user can find the story they are interested in quickly and easily, and encourage their readers to follow their own reading path more than their offline counterparts [Schoenbach, 2005, pg 246-247]. The Australian, the Daily Telegraph and the Sydney Morning Herald all do this, and even contain an easy to use search bar and story archives to find older news articles [The Australian (a), 2009; The Daily Telegraph (a), 2009; smh.com.au (a), 2009]. Newspapers on the other hand require the reader to search through the entire paper to find the article they are looking for, and more effort is required to find older stories.

These three companies can also now provide their readers multimedia content in their online editions, which is something that could not be done with their print version. Each of the sites pages that host multiple video clips of actual news footage for users to access and play [The Australian (b), 2009; The Daily Telegraph (b), 2009; smh.com.au (b), 2009]. The Australian goes even further with it’s multimedia content by offering a section dedicated to slideshows and galleries [The Australian (c), 2009] as well as a free song every week for their readers to download and keep [The Australian (d), 2009]

This use of multimedia has also benefited print journalists in that many are now required to work across multiple media platforms, including shooting video clips and recording podcasts [Franklin, 2008, pg 635]. Indeed, Fairfax, the company which owns the Sydney Morning Herald, now claims to be a 24 hour news operation [Rodrigues, 2008, pg 54]

Another benefit online news websites is their immediacy as they can be continuously updated throughout the day, while papers must wait until next morning to publish a story [Neuberger, C., et al., 1997]. This advantage is further reinforced by the fact that all three companies contain a breaking news section on their home pages [The Australian (a), 2009; The Daily Telegraph (a), 2009; smh.com.au (a), 2009]. However, this immediacy runs the risk of the websites leaving it’s respective newspaper without a strong front story, meaning that print journalists are no longer ‘breaking the news’ so much as discussing existing news and encouraging the further ‘featurisation’ of news journalism [Franklin, 2008, pg 635]. This was certainly the case with how the Daily Telegraph handled the news of Patrick Swayze’s death. Despite the fact that the actors death occurred after the papers went to print, readers were still informed through the Daily Telegraph’s website which was able to break the news as soon as they received word. By 10.14 am, the website they had posted a complete article detailing his death and his achievements [The Daily Telegraph (c), 2009], while the paper itself printed a detailed tribute to the actor for the next day. [The Daily Telegraph (d), 2009, pg 1; Crawford, C., Roach, V., 2009, pg 10-11].

Finally, there has been a rapid growth in online advertising sales, with online advertising growing four times faster than any other media in Australia in 2005 [Rodrigues, 2008, pg 54], however it should be noted that this growth is from a relatively low baseline [Franklin, 2008, pg 634]. That said, online advertisements are often more eye catching and interactive than their print counterparts, and include not just banners at the tops and bottoms of the site’s pages, but also inline ads, interstitials, the possibility of entire and clearly marked advertorial sections and video advertising [Miller, R., 2007].

Despite all this however, there is no agreed upon and consensual industry-wide business model for newspapers to turn a profit from online editions [Franklin, 2008, pg 636]. At the moment they are generally available for free on the internet, which appears to be another major appeal. Indeed, in a survey that examined the producers, their products and the users of German online newspapers with a WWW presence by May 1997, only 35% of users would be prepared to accept a charge for these news sites. Of these, 80% stated that they would only be willing to pay for online newspapers if they were cheaper than print newspapers. [Neuberger, C., et al., 1997]. The lack of profit that is being made due to this has caused there to be a fear that newspapers run the risk of cannibalizing their own print readership, and thus reduce their revenue base if they cannot implement a suitable model [Franklin, 2008, pg 636]. However Rupert Murdoch, who owns NewsLimited and therefore runs The Australian and the Daily Telegraph is attempting to change this by planning to charge for all the online content of his newspapers [Edgecliffe-Johnson, A., Li, K., 2009]. Indeed, Murdoch has been quoted as saying that “[News Limited] will control the prices for our content and we will control the relationship with our customers,” [Wilkerson, D, B., 2009]. If this move is successful, there is a strong possibility that other companies will follow suit. However, for now the news offered on these news sites still remains free for the general public to access.

For The Australian, the Daily Telegraph and the Sydney Morning Herald it seems that providing online extensions of themselves holds many advantages for both the companies and their readers. However, the issue of profitability is a serious one, and the industry needs to find a solution to this problem. Hopefully for these companies, Murdoch is successful in his attempts to solve this problem.

Resources:

The Australian (a), 2009, accessed 15th September 2009, http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/

The Australian (b), 2009, Video, accessed 15th September 2009, http://player.video.news.com.au/theaustralian/

The Australian (c), 2009, Multimedia | Galleries and Slideshows, accessed 16th September 2009, http://media.theaustralian.com.au/multimedia/galleries/archive.html?type=latest&title=Latest%20galleries/slideshows

The Australian (d), 2009, Song Of The Week, accessed 15th September 2009, http://media.theaustralian.com.au/multimedia/2009/07/10-song/song-of-the-week.html

Crawford, C., Roach, V., 2009, ‘Cowboy with a tender heart – Patrick Swayze – 1952-2009’, The Daily Telegraph, 16th September, pg 10-11

The Daily Telegraph (a), 2009, accessed 15th September 2009, http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/

The Daily Telegraph (b), 2009, Video, accessed 15th September 2009, http://player.video.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/

The Daily Telegraph (c), 2009, Actor Patrick Swayze dies from cancer, accessed 15th September 2009, http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/actor-patrick-swayze-dies-from-cancer/story-e6freuy9-1225773591531

The Daily Telegraph (d), 2009, ‘Patrick Swayze 1952-2009 —- “The love inside, you take it with you … “’ The Daily Telegraph, 16th September, pg 1

Edgecliffe-Johnson, A., Li, K., 2009, Murdoch vows to charge for all online content, accessed 19th September 2009, http://www.ft.com/cms/s/7f6edc2c-821f-11de-9c5e-00144feabdc0,Authorised=false.html?_i_location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ft.com%2Fcms%2Fs%2F0%2F7f6edc2c-821f-11de-9c5e-00144feabdc0.html&_i_referer

Franklin, B, 2008, ‘THE FUTURE OF NEWSPAPERS’, Journalism Practice, v. 2, no. 3, pg 306 - 317, 11 August 2009, Informaworld, http://www.informaworld.com.ezproxy.uow.edu.au/smpp/section?content=a902113785&fulltext=713240928

Miller, R., 2007, How newspapers can thrive on the World Wide Web, accessed 11th August 2009, http://www.ojr.org/ojr/stories/070724miller/

Neuberger, C., Tonnemacher, J., Biebl, M., and Duck, A., 1997, Online—The Future of Newspapers? Germany’s Dailies on the World Wide Web, accessed 14th September 2009, http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol4/issue1/neuberger.html#ADVANTAGES

Rodrigues, Usha M., Braham, E., 2008, ‘Citizen journalism and the public sphere: a study of the status of citizen journalism’, Australian Journalism Review, v.30, no.2, pg 49-60, 11th August 2009, Informit, http://search.informit.com.au.ezproxy.uow.edu.au/fullText;dn=200902799;res=APAFT

Schoenbach et al., 2005, ‘Research Note: Online and Print Newspapers: Their Impact on the Extent of the Perceived Public Agenda’, European Journal of Communication v. 20, no. 2, pg 245-258, 11th August 2009, SAGE Journals Online via Google Scholar, http://ejc.sagepub.com/cgi/reprint/20/2/245

smh.com.au (a), 2009, accessed 15th September 2009, http://www.smh.com.au/

smh.com.au (b), 2009, Video, accessed 15th September 2009, http://media.smh.com.au/

Wilkerson, D, B., 2009, Murdoch reiterates: Newspapers must charge online, 19th September 2009, http://www.marketwatch.com/story/murdoch-reiterates-newspapers-must-charge-online?dist=msr_7