Know your blogging competitors and figure out what their audience development program has that yours doesn’t
Brodeur recently conducted a “Survey of Beat Reporters on Social Media , and the Blogosphere”. The survey focused on which blog and news sites that reporters and journalists use regularly.
This is important to us as publishers because it would be smart to know who our competition is in the field so that we can follow their lead, editorially. The consensus of the survey showed that journalists and reporters read web-grown blogs more often than those of traditional newspapers and magazines. However, in some cases, they considered blogs from sites based on traditional print media more credible.
451 beat reporters responded to this survey based on the following areas: technology, lifestyle, health care, travel, and politics.
The survey showed that the amount of time spent reading blogs and online news sources depended on the particular field of research. In an overall summary, travel reporters spent the least amount of time reading news from these sources and political reporters spent the most. All areas showed that around half of the respondents read blogs and online news sources for at least 1-3 hours per day and that they have a list of blogs that they check regularly.
Very few respondents felt that social media and blogs had a negative impact on the diversity, editorial direction, and tone of reporting in their area. There were however, mixed feelings on the quality and accuracy of reporting due to blogs and online news sources that are largely based on opinion rather than facts.
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The top three “travel” blogs read every day by reporters in the survey were:
However, when asked which blogs they felt were “very credible”, traditional media won:
The top three “technology” blogs read every day by reporters in the survey were:
Yet when asked which blogs they felt were “very credible”, these blogs landed on top:
The top three “political” blogs read by reporters in the survey were:
RealClearPolitics.com
HuffingtonPost.com
TalkingPointsMemo.com
These blogs were also found to be the most credible by political reporters. This is most likely because, as we saw in the survey, political reporters are more likely to use online sources for their research than any other area did. So while other areas read a diverse amount of blogs for a mix of enjoyment and reporting, political reporters appear to stick with what they considered the most credible.
The top three “healthcare” blogs read every day by reporters in the survey were:
Like the political reporters group, healthcare reporters appear to stick with the blogs that they find credible. These three placed at the top for accuracy as well.
The top three “lifestyle” blogs read by reporters in the survey were:
However, when asked which blogs they felt were “very credible”, these sites landed on top:
This survey should be sort of irritating to us as traditional publishers. Why have we spent all of these years building our print brand, just to be beaten by blogs that have only shown up in the last five years or so?
Even more, why is there such a difference between what people read most often and what they read for credible information? Shouldn’t both ideally be in one place?
The advantage we have as traditional publishers is that we have already established credibility with our readers on the print side. If we already have one half of the package, then it’s the other half that may need some work.
The lesson here is to take note of these blogs that are your competition and inventory them. What are they doing for their readers that you aren’t?
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