Newspapers have learned to aggressively optimize their content for Google in its desperation for online advertising. The result of this shift is more traffic- Junky traffic.It was seen that readers tend to spend lots and lots of time on newspaper sites. The readers’ level of engagement has been print journalism's strongest asset online, but the recent trends show that's changing. Nielsen Online published that readers are spending less time on top newspaper websites which denoted six minutes less per month at Washingtonpost.com, one minute less per month at USAToday.com and a minute and a half less per month at NYTimes.com.
That is a natural consequence of deriving new traffic growth from a Search Engine Optimization staff, as hearsay anecdotally states that it is happening at many papers. The count of unique users goes up, while the value of each reader for advertisers goes down. And when papers like Huffington Post comes to town with a local section — HuffPo launched in New York — it becomes harder to convince advertisers you have a special relationship with the locals.
The ideal strategy for these newspapers would be to hold the local audience while cultivating new niches likely to be a lucrative as the online ad market grows more sophisticated. Unfortunately, there's hardly a newspaper in the country that can afford to take its sweet time.
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