"In a week when the mainstream press was focused on Iraq and the debate over immigration, the three leading user-news sites--Reddit, Digg and Del.icio.us--were more focused on stories like the release of Apple’s new iPhone and that Nintendo had surpassed Sony in net worth," said the study.

Among the main findings, as summed up by Editor & Publisher:

- “Seven in ten stories on the user sites come either from blogs or Web sites such as YouTube and WebMd that do not focus mostly on news.

- “On Yahoo News, even when picking from a limited list of stories Yahoo editors had already pared down, users’ top stories only rarely matched those of the news professionals."

On Yahoo News, most-recommended stories were more focused on ‘news you can use’ and practical articles. Most-viewed stories were usually breaking news or sensational, and most-emailed stories were comprised of “a mix of the practical and the oddball," said the study.

This doesn’t mean that online readers are all running away from mainstream media. Instead, it shows that once again editors’ judgment about their readers’ tastes may be inaccurate. Or perhaps the divergence comes from the fact that editors still prioritize ‘big news,’ whereas online readers are looking for more leisure or personally relevant content.

In fact, the findings would seem to point to the increased inclusion of user-generated content in traditional media content, to provide the users both with what they want to read and what they ‘should’ read – in the news editors’ view.

PEJ reminds that this initial report is based on a limited sample, one week’s news. But the results are still good indicators for traditional media and editors.

Source: Editor & Publisher