Listed in order of most recent first, here are the most significant pieces of research into online publishing:
The November 2006 Bivings Report looked at the web sites of the top 50 most circulated magazines in the US to evaluate adoption levels of new features:
- Magazines had been more effective than newspapers in adopting new features notably adopting easily digestible text and driving magazine subscriptions
- The most common online feature is RSS feeds (48 per cent)
- 28 per cent offered a selection of feeds
- 46 per cent offered a messageboard/forum with registration
- 38 per cent used partial registration for content (compared to 23 per cent for newspapers)
- 38 per cent offer one blog, 16 of those 19 sites allow comment
- 8 per cent offer a links listing
- 6 per cent use category tags
The August 2006 Bivings Report looked at the web sites of the top 100 American newspapers:
- 76 per cent offered RSS feeds
- 80 per cent offered at least one blog
- 67 per cent offered the opporunity to comment (83 per cent on blogs)
- 31 per cent offered podcasts
In July 2006 Harris Interactive conducted its yearly research into web use by 'business decision makers:
- Readership of trade magazines increased slightly (86 per cent compared to 83 per cent)
- 68 per cent visited more than seven B2B web sites in a month (same year-on-year)
- B2B web sites ranked highest for reserching new purchases (66 per cent), followed by salespeople (52 per cent), and magazines (50 per cent)
In July 2006 Deloitte published research commissioned by the Association of Online Publishers into UK trends in online publishing:
- Leading digital publishers predicted that digital revenues will be 40 per cent of the total by 2012
- Currently digital revenues are averaging 17 per cent of turnover
- 70 per cent did not perceive blogs or User Generated Content as a threat
- When asked which 'digital businesses' they admired they stated BBC (23%), Guardian (12%), Amazon (10%)
- Key qualities for success were identified as content (19%), understanding customers (16%), and infrastructure and flexibility (14%)
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