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Ever wonder why the Herald does something? Or how? Or "what were they thinking?" Now you can find out. Executive Editor Ken Robertson and Managing Editor Rick Larson will do their best to explain what happens in the TCH newsroom - and why. |
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closeWednesday, May. 13, 2009
Despite digital age, print and Latin proverb endure
By Ken Robertson, Herald Executive Editor
Could an old Latin proverb still apply in the 21st century media landscape?
For the past year as we’ve monitored market share of the tricityherald.com website compared with other news, information and advertising websites in the Tri-City area, one trend has been consistent.
The Herald and the Giant Nickel, which both offer print editions, consistently rank No. 1 and No. 2 among the sites we monitor.
Typically, the Herald’s share is 65 percent to 70 percent. And typically, Giant Nickel is about 12 percent to 14 percent.
Radio and television lag well behind, although KNDU/KNDO TV, by consolidating both its Tri-City and Yakima page views, inflates its numbers to the low double digits. Without the combined total, KNDU likely would fall to 6 or 7 percent. The other two Tri-City network TV stations each have about 1 percent to 3 percent of the page views.
In the Tri-Cities, a print product paired with a website clearly has an advantage over broadcast.
I’m waiting for the second monthly report on how the web-only version of the defunct Seattle Post-Intelligencer is faring. That could be another indicator of the power of print paired with online.
In March, as other newspaper websites reported 30 percent to 70 percent year-over-year gains, seattlepi.com plummeted by 23 percent following shutdown of the newspaper. In a few weeks, the numbers for April should be out.
April for tricityherald.com was another excellent month, with page views up by 65 percent over April 2008 and our site’s unique visitors up by nearly 41 percent.
The Herald’s combination of print and online continues to create a strong draw for people who want news, information and advertising.
Now, about that old Latin proverb: “Scripta manent, verba volat.”
In English, it means, “The written word endures, the spoken word evaporates.”
Even in our digitized first decade of the 21st century, it still seems to apply.
Ken Robertson: 582-1520; krobertson@tricityherald.com
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