Going Up! Newspapers and the internet

"The Times" is set to end its free online service. It's a gamble, but for readers in places like Mallorca, who might otherwise pay an exorbitant price for the daily paper, two quid a week is extremely good value. Not that this is necessarily the point. Free should be free, say many, and a cover price for the online version will simply cause readers to go elsewhere. We'll see. The new site is actually pretty good.

The "Diario de Mallorca" is not "The Times", nothing like it of course. But there is something interesting about this paper. It has a good website - free - which has enjoyed increased traffic recently. At the same time, the printed version has also increased its circulation. Its main competitor, "Ultima Hora", has experienced a decline in circulation, and its website is not as good but is improving. Of daily papers in Spain with a circulation over 10,000 (not huge admittedly), the "Diario" has registered the second greatest increase in physical circulation among the 39 papers with circulation over this number.

On the face of it, the two increases seem illogical. As the website beefs up its traffic, so, you would think, the circulation of printed version would decrease. So how to explain the apparent contradiction, as evidenced by the "Diario"? Maybe it's all the free publicity I give it, but probably not. Perhaps it has something to do with its local nature. Despite the plans by "The Times" to create its own online "community", it is, like all big papers, rather removed. A paper like the "Diario" isn't. There is a far greater sense of reader "ownership" of the different formats; they are complementary, even if their content is basically the same.

I confess that I am casting around to find a reason. I don't know the answer. But answer there must be, and if the experience of the "Diario" is echoed elsewhere, the doomsday predictions for newspapers and/or their websites would not hold up. What will be interesting is whether the circulation and the site traffic continue to increase. If they do, then someone should try and discover the paper's secret. I should be at the paper's offices today, so maybe I'll ask.


Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.


Index for May 2010

All-inclusives - 6 May 2010, 12 May 2010
British election - 3 May 2010, 7 May 2010
Children's play garden, Sa Romana - 10 May 2010
Diario de Mallorca - 31 May 2010
Economic crisis gets worse - 25 May 2010
Economic diversification - 27 May 2010
Eroski queues and scales - 17 May 2010
Floods - 4 May 2010, 5 May 2010, 7 May 2010
Fraud operation based in Mallorca - 30 May 2010
Gay hotels - 8 May 2010
General strike - 30 May 2010
Holiday club and scratch cards - 21 May 2010, 30 May 2010
Hornblower Embroidery, Puerto Alcúdia - 15 May 2010
Jolly Roger - 9 May 2010
Match Point bar, Puerto Pollensa - 4 May 2010
Mulligans, Puerto Pollensa - 15 May 2010
Newspapers and the internet - 31 May 2010
Parking in Alcúdia - 12 May 2010
Phoning and personal communication - 11 May 2010
Prices - 13 May 2010
Protest in Puerto Pollensa - 26 May 2010, 29 May 2010
Public spending cuts in Spain - 14 May 2010
Rancho Ses Roques, Puerto Alcúdia - 20 May 2010
Sant Marti cave, Puerto Alcúdia - 20 May 2010
Season 2010 - 1 May 2010, 3 May 2010, 19 May 2010
Smoking ban - 18 May 2010
Telefonica - 28 May 2010
Tourism, opening hours & - 2 May 2010
Tourism problems - 11 May 2010
Tourism publications - 16 May 2010
Trip Advisor and review sites - 22 May 2010
Vandalism - 23 May 2010