Top 10 U.S. Newspapers Ranked by Digital Circulation

When news broke on Monday that Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, had purchased The Washington Post, Twitter users and media pundits alike were quick to analyze what the purchase meant for the premiere newspaper of the nation's capital.
Interestingly enough, only 9% of WaPo subscribers pay for the digital edition of the paper: 42,313 digital subscribers of its 473,462 total circulation.
 chart below ranks the top 10 newspapers in the United States by total subscribers and breaks down circulation between digital and print. As the chart shows, The Washington Post has the fewest digital subscribers and the lowest ratio of digital subscribers to print subscribers of any of the top 10 U.S. newspapers. In contrast, the New York Times is the only paper to boast more digital than print subscribers — 1.1 million versus 731,395 — bringing its total circulation to 61% digital.

http://mashable.com/2013/08/06/newspapers-digital-subscriptions/?utm_cid=mash-com-fb-main-photo

Yes, The Times and Journal Are Sending You More Push Notifications

Ad Age reporting:
The country's two largest digital newspapers have been sending more push notifications to mobile readers lately, and not just because of the recent eruption in urgent national news.

The New York Times and the Wall Street Journal -- No. 1 and No. 2, respectively, in terms of U.S. digital circulation, according to the Alliance for Audited Media -- are putting more emphasis on using mobile alerts to distribute breaking news stories and promote their mobile apps.
News publishers have long considered push notifications, which pop up on phone and tablet screens, too intrusive to use more than sparingly. In recent months, however, The Journal and Times have reconsidered that stance and started using them more often.
"We felt comfortable that our breaking news alerts have been well-received by readers and that we may have been a little too stringent about what alerts we should have been sending," said Jonathan Ellis, deputy editor of digital platforms at The Times, which has revised its guidelines on the subject. "More frequently, we're asking ourselves the question 'Should this be a mobile push alert?'"
The change corresponds to in an increase in mobile readership at both newspapers. The Times more than doubled its number of unique visitors on iOS and Android devices over the last year, to 14.3 million in March from some 6 million in March 2012, according to comScore figures encompassing both app users and visitors on the mobile web. The Journal's mobile uniques increased to 4.6 million from from 2.1 million over the same time period.
http://adage.com/article/media/times-sending-push-notifications/241082/

Digital magazines boom too little to grow overall sales

paidcontent reporting:
UK digital magazine circulation has doubled already this year. That is growth typical of a new digital segment – but it’s still nowhere near enough to stop magazine circulation as a whole continuing to slide.
Latest ABC (UK) data shows digital editions of consumer magazines clocked up a total 185,210 in average monthly circulation during the first half of this year…
But, across print and digital, the UK’s top 100 consumer magazines lost three percent of their average monthly actively-purchased circulation…Magazines have lost lost a third of their readers in the last seven years. Digital editions’ circulation makes up just 0.73 percent of the total. That is less than half the U.S. equivalent, as reported earlier this week, which is also small.
What growth digital magazines have shown is partly down to the growing number of publishers starting digital editions for the first time. From publishing data on just 15 digital editions in its first disclosure on the new segment in mid-2011, the ABC now counts 61 titles.
The UK’s most popular digital-replica magazine is Hearst’s Cosmopolitan, with 13,298 sales. The poorest is Kane’s Front, with just 52.
http://paidcontent.org/2012/08/16/digital-magazines-boom-too-little-to-grow-overall-sales/?utm_source=General+Users&utm_campaign=905f6832c2-c%3Amed+d%3A08-17&utm_medium=email

HuffPo, The Daily and the flawed iPad content model

GigaOm reporting:
A little over a month ago, The Huffington Post launched an ambitious project with much fanfare: a weekly magazine app for the iPad called Huffington, which users could download for 99 cents an issue or $19.99 for a year’s worth. The demand for this new format seems to have been underwhelming, however, since the new-media giant says it is dropping the fee and will make the app free of charge to download. Meanwhile, another media giant — News Corp. — has laid off dozens of staff at its iPad newspaper The Daily, and there continue to be rumors that the entire operation could be in jeopardy. Are these two isolated cases, or a sign that cracks are starting to show in the content model that publishers have bought into with the iPad?...
Dedicated apps don’t fit the way content works any more
Whether media companies like it or not (and they mostly don’t), much of the news and other content we consume now comes via links shared through Twitter and Facebook and other networks, or through old-fashioned aggregators — such as Yahoo News or Google News — and newer ones like Flipboard and Zite and Prismatic that are tailored to mobile devices and a socially-driven news experience. Compared to that kind of model, a dedicated app from a magazine or a newspaper looks much less interesting, since by design it contains content from only a single outlet, and it usually doesn’t contain helpful things like links.
The Daily suffers from this problem and plenty of others, in my view. Not only is it content from a single entity, but it doesn’t even offer a website where readers can find or easily share that content — and while that may have looked to some observers like an ambitious bet on a mobile-only model when the paper launched, for many readers I expect it is merely a hassle
... The fact that The Daily has only managed to sell 100,000 or so subscriptions in the 18 months since it launched (compared with the 500,000 that News Corp. said it would need to break even on the publication) certainly doesn’t bode well for the future.
http://gigaom.com/2012/08/02/huffpo-the-daily-and-the-flawed-ipad-content-model/

In new ad downturn, subscription salvation for some, gold rush for others

paidcontent reporting:
By now, the world was supposed to have emerged from the worst of the global economic storm that dampened advertising dollars through 2008 and 2010. But lingering European concerns suggest the ad dip is back, according to several company earnings disclosures this week.
As it returns, some publishers are congratulating themselves on having erected their flood defences – building digital products that consumers, rather than advertisers, pay for. But others are riding an advertising wave that’s still growing, pushing them to shores of sustainability they are convinced are becoming visible.
Financial Times
FT Group reported for the last half-year: “Our advertising revenues declined, as expected, with growth online and in luxury and personal finance more than offset by declines in trade and recruitment. Advertising demand remains volatile and visibility poor.”
But, just as FT.com MD Rob Grimshaw forecast to paidContent in May, FT digital subscriptions have now surpassed print circulation for the first time, after growing 31 percent from last year to over 300,000. That gives the publisher, which has long committed to reducing its advertising reliance, welcome shelter.
http://paidcontent.org/2012/07/27/in-new-downturn-subscription-salvation-for-some-ad-gold-rush-for-others/?utm_source=Daily+Buzz+from+eMedia+Vitals&utm_campaign=5d9c3f36e4-_nb_DB_07-30-2012&utm_medium=email

FT Digital Subscriptions Surpass Print In U.S. As Sign-Ups Slow

paidcontent reporting:

The Financial Times is still signing up new digital subscribers, but at the slowest rate since iPad lit up its business model in mid-2010.

It attracted 17,000 new digital subscribers in the final three months of 2011, parent Pearson (NYSE: PSO) reported on Monday (total now 267,000). That is 6.8 percent more subscribers than it had in November - the smallest quarterly growth rate it has posted since iPad’s launch.
The FT’s iPad and iPhone app came off iTunes Store in August 2011 after FT Group and Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) failed to reach agreement over Apple’s wish to take 30 percent of in-app subscription payments and to keep the majority of data about subscribers.
Two thousand of the FT’s new 2011 subs were corporate licenses. In the U.S., print circulation was overtaken by these digital subscribers for the first time.
In the wake of the 2009 ad downturn, the publisher is happy to be attracting more paying readers to offset what it still sees as a “weak and volatile” advertising market. “Growth in online advertising and the luxury category was offset by weakness in corporate advertising,” it says.
Advertising is now the minority of FT revenue, with content sales 58 percent. And digital is now 47 percent of revenue.
Pearson said FT Group 2011 operating profit rose 27 percent to £76 million on six percent higher revenue of £427 million.
SEE ALSO: Pearson Sees Digital Publishing Income Beating Print In 2012
http://paidcontent.org/article/419-ft-digital-subscriptions-surpass-print-in-u.s.-as-sign-ups-slow/

Magazine Publishers Running Ahead Of Auditors With UK Digital Editions

paidcontent reporting:

Magazine publishers who publish digital editions have found those editions hit 1.7 percent of circulation in the UK - but auditing criteria mean some of the best examples are not yet counted.

Digital editions reported through ABC (UK) clocked 96,589 from 72 titles during the July-to-December period, four times more titles than reported in the previous year.
Sales were led by Men’s Health, T3 and GQ.
The ABC began auditing UK “digital editions” in August 2011 but, to satisfy the definition, content can only vary from print counterparts by five percent.

• So Future Publishing (LSE: FUTR) took it upon itself to commission its own, “industry-first” independent audit of its flagship T3 magazine, which has a unique UI for the iPad. When this edition is included, it doubles the ABC-stated figure 7,327 T3 standard digital editions (through newsstands like Zinio) to 14,223.
• Likewise, Dennis’ Evo magazine also falls outside the threshold, so it said independently it has seen 300,000 Newsstand downloads, from which it has found 6,000 iPad subscribers.
• Publishers think including their best products is important because they want to demonstrate reach to advertisers.
  ABC, which had already updated its digital reporting restrictions three times in 2011, will from June 2012 let publishers like Future use a new digital-only certificate to report circulations for iPad editions which contain little or no resemblance to print counterparts.
  The July-to-December digital edition circulations issued this week also do not include the full iTunes Newsstand uplift. Since Apple’s service was only online for three of the six months, its effect is averaged out amongst the ABC‘s six months.
  
• Future itself reports 150,000 Newsstand sales across its portfolio, including digital editions and apps - over 40 percent of which are subscriptions.
• http://paidcontent.org/article/419-magazine-publishers-running-ahead-of-auditors-with-uk-digital-editions 

News International reports 119,255 digital subs for The Times

mediaweek reporting:

News International has provided an update on its two UK newspaper websites behind paywalls, to report 119,255 digital subscribers for The Times and 113,818 for the Sunday Times.

The Sunday Times: NI reports 113,818 digital subs

In further revelations, the publisher reported an average of 59,882 copies of The Times were downloaded daily on the iPad, a 35% increase since September 2011.
The average number of The Sunday Times iPad edition downloads in January was 63,959, representing an 80% increase since September.

The figures continue the steady sales growth tracked by News International, with digital subscribers this time last year (February 2011) for The Times and Sunday Times standing at 79,000 and 75,133 respectively.

The paying digital subscribers are in addition to the reported print circulation figures for January of 405,113 for The Times and 967,975 for The Sunday Times.

According to unverified figures provided by the publisher, there is now a total paid audience of 524,368 for The Times, and 1,081,793 for the Sunday Times.

	Digital subscriptions
	The Times	The Sunday Times
Feb-11	79,000	75,133
Jun-11	101,036	97,004
Sep-11	111,036	105,594
Oct-11	112,616	107,569
Nov-11	116,134	110,569
Dec-11	116,902	110,024
Jan-12	119,255	113,818

Both newspaper brands have apps available for download on all platforms and devices including Android, Amazon Kindle and iOS5.
http://mediaweek.co.uk/news/1117156/News-International-reports-119255-digital-subs-Times/

News Corp Sees Digital Payments Soften But Not Reverse UK Sales Decline

paidcontent reporting:

More than a year and a half after News Corp.‘s flagship UK “quality” papers introduced new paid digital outlets, their effect is becoming clear - they are softening ongoing print circulation declines, but not overturning them.

Latest figures issued by News International show The Times and Sunday Times websites, apps and digital editions gathered a total 6,147 new customers in January…
...
But, despite the customer additions, total cross-format paid sales for each title are lower than a year ago…

News International combines print and new digital paid copies to show that total paid sales are holding up. When combined, Times sales look healthier than they would be if observers considered only print circulation, which is falling despite a seasonal fillip at The Sunday Times.
Typically, iPad has played a big part in generating the Times’ digital custom. The daily title saw an average 59,882 copies downloaded daily in January, while the Sunday stablemate clocked 63,959.
 http://paidcontent.org/article/419-news-corp-sees-digital-payments-soften-but-not-reverse-uk-sales-decline/

Guardian’s Facebook app delivering 1m extra hits a day

journalism.co.uk reporting:
The Guardian’s Facebook app is generating almost a million extra page impressions per day, according to figures released by the news outlet and by Facebook.
Two months on from its launch at Facebook’s f8 conference in London the app has been installed by over four million users.
The news outlet also believes that the app is engaging a younger audience, as over half (56.7 per cent) of the app’s users are 24 and under and 16.7 per cent are 17 and under.
Andrew Miller, chief executive officer of Guardian Media Group, said in a statement:

As well as increasing traffic, the app is making our journalism visible to new audiences. Over half of the app’s users are 24 and under – traditionally a very hard-to-reach demographic for news organisations

The Independent, the other UK-based news outlet to launch a Facebook app following f8 on 22 September, is reporting that it has more than one million monthly active users connecting their Facebook accounts.
The integration has bumped up older articles that have gone viral through social distribution, according to the Facebook post detailing the statistics.

The news organisation found that many of the “most shared” and “most viewed” stories on the site have been from the late 1990s, “a result of the increased social virility”.

The Guardian and Independent both took a different approach when building their Facebook appshe Guardian focused on the reading experience within Facebook, the shared reading experience for the Independent takes place on the news site.
http://blogs.journalism.co.uk/2011/11/30/guardians-facebook-app-delivering-1m-extra-hits-a-day/

Affinity Reports Dramatic Shifts in Magazine Readership

WST reporting: Largest Publishing Companies See Consumers Accessing Magazine Branded Content Across Multiple Platforms

NEW YORK, Dec. 2, 2011 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- Today's magazine marketplace is no longer harnessed to the printed page. As publishers continue to aggressively leverage a variety of digital channels to extend the reach of their brands, consumers are migrating to those new platforms in impressive numbers.

According to the most recent release of Affinity's American Magazine Study - which reports the total magazine brand footprint across print, mobile and social platforms, as well as integrating magazine Website data from comScore's Media Metrix - the largest multi-title publishing companies are seeing dramatic shifts in their traditional audience profiles. 

...

For example, 65% of consumers reading Hearst magazines are relying exclusively on the printed versions of the company's products, while 11% of Hearst's total unduplicated audience is interacting with content and advertising only in digital form. One out of four readers (24%) are now accessing Hearst-branded content in both print and digital form. Overall, 35% of Hearst's total audience footprint is now comprised of digital readers (the combination of "Digital Only Readers" and "Print and Digital Readers").

For detailed audience profiles for specific magazine genres or individual magazine brands, please visit www.AffinityResearch.net .

About Affinity's American Magazine Study AMS employs a contemporary, Web-based methodology to survey more than 60,000 consumers annually. AMS is the industry's premier source for total magazine brand readership across print and digital channels, including magazine Websites, social networks, electronic subscriptions and the growing number of apps designed for mobile devices. AMS Web audience estimates are derived from comScore's Media Metrix data, using a state-of-the-art integration process to capture the real-time Web behavior of AMS respondents through direct passive measurement.
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/affinity-reports-dramatic-shifts-in-magazine-readership-2011-12-02

Independent site predicts record month following relaunch

newmediaage reporting:
The Independent’s daily average unique browsers dropped 7% in October to 611,488, according to the latest ABC audit, but the online newspaper predicts visitor numbers to surge following the relaunch of its website at the beginning of November.

Zach Leonard, The Independent’s MD, digital, said, “The October dip was driven by a couple of things. First, there was less headline news than in the previous month, and second, all our resources were focused on the relaunch so we spent a little less time on the day to day.”
There are no concrete figures for independent.co.uk since the relaunch on 31 October, but Leonard said it has had several “record days” over the past ten days, which is partly down to the redesign using a lot more contextual and behavioural targeting, provided by Leiki.
...
Guardian.co.uk held its spot in second place after breaking the 3m unique browser mark, again following a drop back to 2.9m in September.
The site hit the 3m mark for the first time in August, which it attributed partly to its live coverage of the riots around England (nma.co.uk 3 September 2011).
Telegraph.co.uk has also seen good progress from September to October, up 14.9% to 2.3m average daily visitors.
http://www.nma.co.uk/3032221.article?cmpid=NMAE01&cmptype=newsletter&email=true

FT Web App registers one million users

FT reporting:

The Financial Times has registered another digital milestone with the FT Web App seeing over one million users since its launch in June.
Available on the iPhone and iPad by visiting app.ft.com directly from the device’s web browser, almost half of its users have downloaded a shortcut to their iPad or iPhone home screen, replicating a native app experience.
The launch of the FT Web App has significantly boosted mobile and tablet traffic. FT.com now sees 20% of total page views and 15% of new B2C subscriptions each week coming directly from mobile and tablet devices. These readers are also more engaged, with FT.com users who register on mobiles and tablets 2.5 times more likely to subscribe, as well as being more active in giving feedback.
The Financial Times was the first major news publisher to launch an app of this type, which allows readers to access its award-winning journalism easily and quickly direct from the phone’s browser.
Built using HTML5 technology, it features continual and automatic content downloads and improvements. It ensures that FT customers can access FT content anytime, anywhere, on a PC and multiple devices, with one login and one subscription payment.
Recent updates to the app include the inclusion of FT Special Reports and blogs including the A-List, featuring exclusive and original comment from the FT’s network of globally renowned leaders, policymakers and commentators. Users are also able to customise the start-up screen with a home page of their choice.
For more visit app.ft.com
http://aboutus.ft.com/2011/11/18/ft-web-app-registers-one-million-users/#ixzz1e9dNn0tb