Local Papers & Local Web Traffic

by Matt on Jan 21, 2010 in Industry

In Why Local Blogging Works, I suggest that the decline of traditional media is a big opportunity for local blogs to succeed. Newspapers, in particular, have been cutting back in many ways — from letting go of staff to killing the print edition altogether.

With that in mind, I was struck earlier this month while reading an article in which my local paper shared its most popular online articles of 2009. I wasn’t struck by the content of those articles, but by where the traffic came from. Here’s a quick summary:

For seven of the top stories, most or a significant portion of the traffic wasn’t local. It was from social media or national web sites. Now, surely if the local paper went deeper into its 2009 traffic, there’s no doubt the vast majority of its traffic is local. Still, this is an an interesting admission, I think.

It’s interesting from a financial and advertising perspective. The newspaper is selling local ads, but its most popular content is being seen by people who aren’t local — that’s bad news for advertisers. Why would Sam’s Diner want his online ad seen by people half the country away?

Maybe you’re selling local ads on your blog, too. If so, you’re competing with the paper. Is this something you can keep in mind when talking to potential advertisers? Can you show them that your blog is being seen by locals, and not getting traffic bumps from Digg, Fark, and other sites that won’t help your advertisers?

Something to think about.

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January 21, 2010 | Filed Under Industry 

Comments

5 Responses to “Local Papers & Local Web Traffic”

  1. Tom Royce on January 23rd, 2010 11:24 am

    Quick question on managing the traffic.

    Wouldn’t it make sense for the paper to use a referral engine for it’s advertising?

    By that I mean, if the traffic is from a certain geographic area the local ads are seen. If the traffic is from outside of that area, national ads are shown?

    Over time this would be more profitable and honest for all parties. The locals would know that the best effort of the paper would be to show only locals their ads, and the national people would have better targeted advertising so it is more effective.

  2. cynthia bailey on January 24th, 2010 11:13 am

    Matt, Thanks for demonstrating yet another reason why it’s so important to keep one eye on our local physical communities while we are busy focusing our work in the international community of the web.

  3. Steve Sherron on January 25th, 2010 5:45 pm

    This was a totally stupid move by the newspaper. If my local paper did this, I would jump all over it and make sure every local advertiser that I approached, saw it. This was a very astute observation you made Matt. This would slip past 99% of the local bloggers and readers.

  4. Matt on January 29th, 2010 7:40 pm

    Tom – I think that would be smart, but don’t know (and doubt) that such a targeting system is in place, at least with my local paper.

    Steve, Cynthia – thx for sharing your thoughts, too.

  5. Ed Walker on January 30th, 2010 7:30 am

    I think it’s really important websites are able to show where their visitors come from. If you can prove you have ‘X number of visitors who are from X town’ then you can build a good platform for advertising.

    Having 50% of your visitors coming to your website from another city/country is not a strength, it’s a weakness as it shows your website is not attracting it’s core audience – local people!

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