"With some exceptions, newspaper groups don't seem to be marketing their digital assets particularly well," said Adam Smith, the futures director at Group M. "Regional press groups, in particular, still seem to be overly focused on only selling in print.” This results in emphasized loss of readership, especially the younger generation, because not only do they turn to online news sources, they don’t pick the traditional newspaper’s poorly managed website.

"The typical newspaper sales department still regards online as an exotic distraction, if they are aware of it at all," Smith said.

A sad revelation considering live updated newscasts are just starting to soar. A study in the U.S. found there were twice more podcast downloaders in August compared to April (12% of Web users). The few newspapers who invest and work on this technology could be tomorrow’s winners.

"There has been a failure to fill the 'web void'. Most newspaper groups have been insular and are too focused on the traditional newspaper market, not as content creators," said Paul Thomas, the investment director at Mindshare.

Unless all industry specialists and analysts are wrong, it’s time for newspapers to seriously further their online venture, and build a solid base for the readerships’ modern wishes.

Source: The Guardian - Online Media Daily