The Chaser

The folks at Jupiter Research, a provider of research about online, information technology and business, have a new report out for their clients. Because Chaser HQ is plugged into David Card, the company's senior analyst and vice president, we got a tip about the reports. Here's the summary from the company's press release:

...the number of online adults who prefer the Internet as their main source of news has grown over 35% in the last four years, at the expense of television and newspapers. Currently, over 26% of online adults prefer the Internet for national and international news, compared to 19% in 2001.

JupiterResearch consumer surveys show that the percentage of online adults using the Internet for daily news had been flat -- hovering around 50% -- for the last few years. Preference for online local news is growing, but hasn't exceeded 10% among online adults. Young adults, ages 18 to 24, are helping drive the preference trend, especially in national news. Thirty-three percent of online young adults say they prefer the Internet as their primary source of news, while 40% prefer TV and 10% newspapers.

David sent along this observation to readers of the Chaser:

"Being a true believer, I think the interpretation of this data could be pretty positive for local papers. I'd recommend, for instance, that a local paper invest modestly in its online local entertainment coverage as a way to steal young adult market share from TV or the local alternative paper. It's probably more cost effective than launching a free tabloid.
 
"The fact that national news preference favors companies like Yahoo, AOL, and CNN is not bad news for local newspapers. Local coverage is still a battle between papers, local TV, and radio. Local Internet-only sites are fairly rare, and the national networks relatively unsuccessful (Digital Cities, CitySearch, Yahoo Local). Most local TV sites are weaker than their newsapaper counterparts. It's a good opportunity to hold and grow a local audience online.
 
"I don't think it's easy to build an audience online and make money off of it offline, but that's worth exploring. The key is to build online revenue streams, primarily advertising."

There was one other section that caught the attention of this Chaser and it is about BLOGS! [The boldface is Jupiter's]

The media is currently obsessed with blogs. That is because the media industry always over-covers itself, and a handful of would-be online pundits attracted attention during the elections and by exposing shady journalistic gaffes (while committing many of their own). Make no mistake, blogging is a phenomenon, but there is little evidence from surveys, traffic data, or case studies to support local sites making heavy investments. According to the recent survey, more online local news fans, for instance, got entertainment site information from message boards than did so from blogs. But the good news is that local content sites are increasing community elements relatively inexpensively.

OK, Chasers. Lots to chew on, lots to do.