24/7 Wall Street evaluates its top 25 US news sites

Posted by Christie Silk on June 17, 2009 at 4:00 PM

News publishers, moving with the irrepressible technological pull of modern readership desires, and the financial necessity of adapting to advertising changes, have shovelled huge amounts of money and effort into the development of online editions of their titles. The aim was to increase revenue from the Internet editions faster than money was being lost from the printed editions. This was a risky, but apparently necessary gamble and the final result is yet to be seen. The latest rounds of industry analysis, however, suggest that online editions will not be able to save their printed sisters financially, as the latter's traditional sources of revenues continue to drop disproportionately to the incomes generated by new ventures.

The analysts at 24/7 Wall Street maintain that even at companies of which 15 per cent of their sales are generated by online projects, this does not provide a sufficent base to maintain a substantial editorial and business staff. Moving content online is a palliative, which may "bring in additional sales but it will not do anything more than buy time for the industry to find other solutions".

Nonetheless, it remains that online newspaper editions are a significant presence on the Internet, and highly worthy of discussion in terms of the web and general news provision, particularly when the two converge. Particularly, as 24/7 Wall Street points out, there is the option that a newspaper, forced to fold its printed edition, could keep a small number of its staff and continue with a online edition, to maintain at the least the presence of its business. This is currently being experimented in Ann Arbour, Michigan, where the sole paper is now running online.

To further understand the functioning and benefits of online editions of newspapers, 24/7 Wall Street have evaluated existing projects of regional dailies, using their own barometers of quality and the daily circulation levels according the Audit Bureau of Circulation. The framework is explained as such:

"24/7 looked at newspaper websites in the context of what works across the Internet at news, entertainment, sports sites, and blogs on the assumption that newspapers have the opportunity to benchmark "best practices". The subjects were given a ranking from 'A' to 'F', according to: 1) strength of content; 2) ease of use and navigation; 3) use of new technology and online tools including comment sections, message boards, and multimedia; 4) layout; 5) presence of a strong set of advertisers; and 6) size of audience based on unique visitor data from May measurements by Compete.com.

The conclusions are interesting. Apparently, standards vary greatly. There is praise of several, low-key titles that utilise their resources to the maximum and successfully engage, and crucially, maintain a user base. The diverse range of standards show that there are no benchmarks of excellence encouraging high standards being used in the industry, which when coupled with the increasing risk of printed editions folding, 'is a shame'.

Recognising the crux of the debate, the final barometer questions whether the online edition is actually better than the printed edition. As one expert told 24/7:

"The strength of a newspaper web site is its ability to present almost endless information, far more than it could ever afford to print. The best newspapers take advantage of this by explaining in their print editions where additional information on a particular subject can be found -- the full text of a speech or a court document, for instance."

The Wall Street Jounal and USATODAY, while topping the circulation figures, have not been included in the assessments. They are national properties with corporate budgets not accessible to other newspapers.

The top 25 titles are listed here with their grading:

1. The New York Times. Grade: A
2. The Los Angeles Times. Grade: B-
3. The Washington Post. Grade: B-
4. The New York Daily News. Grade: B+
5. New York Post. Grade C
6. The Chicago Tribune. Grade: B.
7. Houston Chronicle. Grade: D+
8. Arizona Republic Grade: B+
9. The Denver Post Grade: B
10. Newsday. Grade A-
11. The Dallas Morning News. Grade: D-
12. The Minneapolis Star Tribune. Grade: B
13. Chicago Sun-Times. Grade: B.
14. The San Francisco Chronicle's website is known as SFGate.com. Grade: B-
15. The Boston Globe. Grade: D.
16. The Cleveland Plain Dealer. Grade: D+
17. The Detroit Free Press. Grade: B
18. The Philadelphia Inquirer website is called Philly.com. Grade: D-.
19. The Star Ledger. Grade: F.
20. St. Petersburg Times. Grade:. A-.

Source: 24/7 Wall Street