1. Website Features of the
Top 100 Circulation U.S.
Newspapers
Heather Heater, Anita Ford, Brad Beckwith, Jeremy
Lyons, Kris Miller and Bob Bergland
Missouri Western State University

2. Overview
In 2006, The Bivings Group conducted
a study of the websites of the Top 100
circulation newspapers in the U.S.
The goal of our study was
1) Update and compare their results
with 2012 data
2) Research the use of social media
and other new features among the
newspapers
3) Provide a baseline for future studies

3. Background Literature
First comprehensive studies of U.S.
dailies done in 1997
• Peng et. al study of website design
and features on 80 newspapers
• Kamerer and Bressers study of
national vs local news on websites
• Shultz: Content analysis of features of
100 newspaper websites, stratified by
size

4. Background Literature
Some other key studies:
Greer & Mensing’s 1997-2003 longitudinal
study
Huang et. al (survey, 2006)
Sparks, Young & Darnell 2006—100
Canada media websites
2006 Bivings Group—Top 100,
Russial’s 2008 survey of 210 newspapers
over 30,000 circulation
Bergland, et. al. 2008 analysis of 362 dailies

5. Methodology
• Chose content analysis over survey method
• Largely repeated methodology of Bivings
Group 2006 study, with 3 main differences
• 1) Used current list of Top 100 U.S. newspapers,
which has changed slightly since the list Bivings
used
• 2) Used a two-pass system to aid in reliability of
data
• 3) Expanded list of features from 14 to 36
Note: this paper only looks at MM/Interactivity;
A future paper will examine social
media/distribution

6. Methodology
Conducted pilot test of 10 sites to ensure
inter-rater reliability (94%)
First pass was conducted in mid-October
Second pass was conducted one week after
first pass, only adding features not seen
on first pass, since there would be no way
to verify that a feature wasn’t there before.
A total of 212 items were added in the
second pass in the 3,600-item dataset
(5.9%)

7. Results

8. Multimedia

9. Video-
95%
publish
original
video

10. Other
Multimedia
Features

11. Interactivity

12. Reader
interaction:9
6% have
comments

13. Other
interactive:
96% have
blogs

14. 2006 vs 2012
Interactivity, Multimedia
and Distribution
Features

15. 2006 vs 2012

16. 2006 vs
2012
Interactivity

17. 2006 vs 2012 Multimedia

18. Conclusions
 Interactivity has increased, with blogs and
comments after articles jumping the most
and reaching almost 100%
 Also not surprisingly, self-produced video
has also almost reached the full saturation
point
 Tied in with comments and a gradual move
toward paywalls, registration has also
increased significantly, nearly tripling
 Advances in Content Management
Systems and the focus on the reader has
resulted in features like Most
Popular/Commented/Recommended to
also nearly triple

19. Future Research
Analyze more distribution and social
media features
Break down data by ownership, size
Follow-up survey/interviews to
explain how/why
Repeat study in 4-5 years

20. Thanks!
For a copy of this presentation email
bergland@missouriwestern.edu