As many know, online newspaper readership is up and continuing to grow, as is the amount of time readers spend on websites (up to 45 minutes from 37 in 2005). Online newspaper readers are, generally, attractive to advertisers – half are college graduates and 90% have jobs. Of course, the continuing challenge for newspapers is how to make money from this online readership.

Hamish McRae of The Independent makes a case for the importance of the brand in specialist financial readership. First, the Wall Street Journal has built far and away the most successful paid electronic paper. Also, brand extension seems to be easier in financial and economic information than in general news.

Dow Jones and the WSJ have more pull for their readers of financial news than the New York Times does for its readers of general news. Therefore, these specialist financial brands are in a good position to begin selling other services. This, in turn is connected to the fact that online newspapers need print branding to be recognizable in a global market. Otherwise, they run the risk of being lost in the Internet shuffle.

“While it is perfectly possible to develop online ‘viewspapers’,” says McRae, “in practice the brand of the print medium helps writers reach the global market in a way that a purely online service would find harder to do.”

Source: The Independent