Image via Wikipedia The latest data from Nielsen Online on monthly US visitors to the top news and information sites makes for depressing reading for the BBC.
The number of unique visitors to BBCNews.com has fallen by more than a million in a year. The site had 5,253,000 readers in July 2008, compared to 6,408,000 July last year.
The drop comes at a time when the BBC has been ramping up its commercial operations outside the UK. In November 2007, advertising was introduced on the international version of the BBC News website. In the first six months, the advertising brought in a measly £1.5 million ($2.96 million.
When the commercial plans for the site were approved by the BBC Trust, there were concerns about the impact that advertising might have on the BBC’s award-winning online news service.
It could be just a coincidence that the BBC has lost a million readers during the year when it introduced advertising. But the Nielsen figures should give BBC news executives pause for thought.
By comparison, 24 of the top 30 news sites experienced an increase in unique users. The most popular site in the US is MSNBC.com, followed by Yahoo News, CNN.com, AOL News and the New York Times.
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U.S. sites are all ad supported.
The Presidential Elections are a big draw to American readers.
Foreign news services would not cover this as much.
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Right, like the other websites you mention don’t have advertising…
I’d rather trust my own analytics than nielsen’s
Alf,
Leaving aside the specifics of the Nielsen year-on-year stats, I don’t think it necessarily follows that any drop in traffic to the BBC News website internationally is down to the introduction of advertising. We are hardly unique in having ads. And according to a recent independent audience appreciation benchmarking study ours are seen as less intrusive than most. The level of complaints about ads has been low, and we won a People’s Voice Webby this year for best News site. Meanwhile traffic to the site as a whole has continued to register healthy growth. That’s not to say though that we don’t recognise the challenge of staying relevant to our international audiences in key competitive markets such as the US. In an election year, any non-US news site catering for US users as part of its international audience has certainly got its work cut out. We’re taking these challenges seriously and have embarked on a programme of changes – starting with changes to the look of the site earlier in the year and better presentation of audio and video at story level – and there is a lot more to come.
Steve Herrmann
Editor, BBC News website
Thanks for the comment Steve. It is good to hear that you are continually working to improve the site, particularly with better presentation of audio and video at story level.
US news sites all carry ads, but readers will expect this. Whereas I remember that one of the reasons often cited by readers for coming to the BBC was the lack of advertising. Now, I am not suggesting there is necessarily a correlation between a drop in audiences and advertising, but it is good to have a discussion around this issue. Do the BBC’s own internal stats reflect a similar drop in US audiences?
The fact that the BBC is a non-US news site could be used to the BBC’s advantage in an election year. There was much interest in foreign coverage of the presidential elections last time round, especially from US readers seeking an alternative viewpoint. The BBC could aggressively market its coverage as offering a fresh perspective from one of the world’s most trusted news sources.
Alf – Hi again,
Sorry for the delay in responding to your question about what our internal stats show on this. I turned for help to our stats team and what they say is that the drop-off you’ve highlighted isn’t reflected in some of the other metrics we have available. Where there have been decreases these have been during June and July, when website usage usually dips anyway, though the seasonal fluctuation last year might have been masked by the big interest in the Madeleine McCann story over that period. They also point out that there are always varying numbers for web stats depending on how they are collected and analysed, and that we are working with several external stat providers to ensure the data and classifications are as accurate as possible.
On coverage – I agree we offer a different perspective on the election from US sites and that’s one of the reasons our US users come to us. We also aim to make the coverage accessible, relevant and engaging for the widest possible audience and that’s also, I believe, one of our strengths.
BECAUSE THE SHEEPLE ARE WAKING UP AND GETTING THEIR NEWS FROM ALEX JONES AND ABANDONING JEWOPOLIST PRO BIG GOVERNMENT MEDIA SOURCES SUCH AS THE BBC.
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