44% of Google News Readers Don't Click Through to Stories
44% of Google News Readers Don't Click Through to Stories
Posted 01/19/2010 at 2:15pm
| by Bart Salisbury
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One of Google’s big arguments for aggregating news stories and presenting them on its own site is the practice drives traffic to the originating site--it’s a win-win situation. News providers, on the other hand, are not so sure of Google’s claim. They’re seeing declines in readership in the real world, and a hard sell for revenues in the digital world. This while Google continues to haul in money by the bucket-full.
Outsell, a research firm, has released it’s third annual News Users’ Report, and it seems to agree with the news providers: Google isn’t doing them any real favor. According to Outsell, which surveys the real world and digital news preferences of 2,787 U.S. news consumers, 44 percent of visitors to Google News scan headlines, read the brief synopsis, and leave it at that--they never click through to the originating news site. No click-through, no traffic. No traffic, no ad revenue. According to Outsell analyst Ken Doctor, “Though Google is driving some traffic to newspapers, it’s also taking a significant share away.”
Revenue problems for newspapers are exacerbated by the move from print to digital. According to Outsell, 57 percent of users go to digital sources, up from 33 percent a few years ago. Online traffic, therefore, is even more crucial if news providers are to make a buck (or are to survive).
Google may be the least of new providers' worries. The report also says only 10 percent news users would be willing to pay if a subscription to a print version is necessary for digital access. And 75 percent say they’ll seek their news elsewhere if a paid subscription is required for online content.
Image Credit: Google
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MeTo
January 20, 2010 at 9:52am
Google should de list any body that makes you subscribe. Google needs to get back to it's core values.
ThunderBolt
January 20, 2010 at 7:58am
I skim through the news, and read what seems to be interesting. The most annoying news posts are from the Washington Post where in order for you to read an article, you have to subscribe.
That's why homepage
http://img690.imageshack.us/img690/9184/igoogle.jpg
Jox
January 19, 2010 at 7:00pm
“Though Google is driving some traffic to newspapers, it’s also taking a significant share away.”
This is the same (misguided) mentality that software/music/movie producers have. The 44% who visit Google news and don't click though to the originating website are NOT subscribers to news services in print OR digital form. This is not lost revenue - it's revenue that was never going to exist. These are the people who will get it for free or not at all. The 56% that do is pure Google-driven profit. The rest is the cost of doing business. To call it lost income is wishful thinking at best. Despite what the newspapers may think, there are plenty of people out there who are content to have no news at all rather than pay for it.
-Jox
majorsuave
January 19, 2010 at 3:15pm
And I eventually clicked to comment. But I admit I browse a lot of news on Google or within Google reader for them RSS feeds.
Some sites have very short RSS feeds for which you have no choice but click the link. Others embed ads in it and then some put in their full content, ad free....
As for the news, Google news allow me mostly to select from what newspaper I want to read the news.
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