In 2006 and 2007, we performed studies that examined how U.S. newspapers are adapting their web programs in the face of an increasingly competitive online news market. These studies looked at the features of the top 100 newspaper websites in an effort to gauge what areas they are investing resources and what areas they are not, and compare how things are changing from year to year. We are about to begin our 2008 study and would like your input as to the features we should look for. Here is what we have come up with so far:
- Date first Online – When the paper first went online.
- Registration Required – Whether one needs to register to access content past the home page.
- Social Bookmarking – Can a user save this site to a social bookmarking services (i.e. digg, del.icio.us, mixx, etc.)?
- Tags – Does the website have tags?
- Mobile Content – Does the website have a mobile version?
- Widgets – Does the website have widgets?
- IM Alerts – Can you get IM Alerts from the site?
- Video – Does the website have videos?
- Photo Features – Does the website have photo features?
- Podcasts – Does the site have podcasts?
- Chat Options – Does the site host a chat service for viewers?
- RSS – Does the site have an RSS feed?
- RSS for different sections – Do various sections have RSS?
- Partial/Full – Is the RSS a full or partial feed?
- RSS Includes Ads – Does the RSS include ads?
- Reporter Blogs – Do the reporters have blogs?
- Reporter Blog Comments – Can viewers comment on the blogs?
- Most Popular Sections (i.e Most Viewed or Most Emailed, etc.) – Does the site have a most viewed, most emailed, or most popular section?
- Comments on Articles – Can readers comment on the articles?
- User Generated Articles – Can the users submit their own articles to the site?
- User Generated Photos – Can the users add photos to the site?
- User Generated Videos – Can the users add videos to the site?
- Social Networking/User Profiles – Does the site have a social network?
- Homepage Customization – Can a user customize their homepage of the site?
- Flash News Boxes – Does the site have a flash box on the homepage that shows various news stories?
- Interactive Features – Does the site have interactive features, meaning mashups, Flash pieces, etc.?
- Weather – Does the homepage have a weather icon?
- Traffic – Does the homepage have a traffic icon?
- Community Calendar – Does the site have a community calendar?
- PDF Edition – Does the home page have a link picture/link of today’s front page?
Are we missing something? What other features should we look at?
Let us know in the comments.
