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December 1, 2001 Newsletter
New Study Says People Giving Up Television For The Internet
A new report just released by UCLA shows that Americans are spending more time surfing the Internet and less time watching television.
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| The study showed that Americans spend 9.8 hours per week online, up from 9.4 hours per week in last year’s study, and that in general, Internet users watch 4.5 hours less television per week that non Internet users. |
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Although the report focused on a consumer audience—namely American families surveyed about general Internet use—questions did focus on Internet use in the workplace. Further, many business people use the Internet for work while at home, giving the survey legitimate impact for both B2B and consumer magazines.
While privacy has been a popular issue in the media, respondents to the 2001 survey said they trusted American businesses to protect them. Specifically, 42.7 percent of the respondents said it was business’ responsibility to maintain privacy of their personal information, compared with 32.5 percent who said we should trust the government.
The study showed that Americans spend 9.8 hours per week online, up from 9.4 hours per week in last year’s study, and that in general, Internet users watch 4.5 hours less television per week that non Internet users. In fact, as Internet usage went up, television viewing went down, the study showed.
Not surprisingly, the survey showed that the speed of a user’s Internet connection has a lot to do with how long the user spends surfing the Internet. According to the study, 81 percent of Americans access the Internet through a traditional modem, compared with 15.2 percent who access the Internet through DSL or a cable modem. But modem users spent an average of only 7.1 hours per week online, as opposed to 10.3 hours per week for broadband users. Clearly the faster the connection, the more time users will spend on the Internet, and the more use they will make of publishers’ sites.
The most popular Internet activity among participants was using e-mail and instant messaging, followed by surfing the web, buying products, finding entertainment information, and catching up on the news.
Those who use the Internet at work say it has been a catalyst for workplace productivity, while those who complained that the Internet made them less productive at work admitted that the lower productivity is because they are spending time surfing the Internet doing things unrelated to their jobs.
The study which was released last week, surveyed 2,006 households throughout the United States on Internet usage or non-usage habits, as well as participants’ perceptions about the Internet. The study was funded in part by the National Science Foundation, AOL/Time Warner, Microsoft, Disney, Sony, Verizon and the National Cable Television Association.
While many respondents viewed the Internet as an important source of information, only 36.3 percent of Internet users said that half of the information they retrieve from the Internet is reliable and accurate.
To download the full report, go to:
http://www.ccp.ucla.edu/pdf/UCLA-Internet-Report-2001.pdf.
Finding Ways to Fund The Latest and Greatest
Last month’s American Business Media Top Management Meeting in Chicago occasioned ABM’s first “town meeting.” Honoring the newly-popular format, GCN Publishing’s President and Creative Director, Joanne Persico, led a panel of three in an audience-driven discussion entitled, “Faster, Better, Cheaper Technology: What’s the latest and greatest?”
Far from creating a definitive list, the three panelists described their company’s efforts in new technology, describing what had been working, what hadn’t been working, and what they wished was working better.
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Chances are their clients are wrestling with the same problems and may have developed solutions they would be willing to share with you.
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One area the panel wasn’t able to explore was financing your technical innovations. For that, we sought the advice of Claudia Flowers, vice president of communications and client services for the Jordan, Edmiston Group, Inc.
In general, Flowers says, companies should focus on the following key points:
Talk to your vendors: printers, pre-press suppliers, web providers etc., can all provide insight about how some of their other clients are funding these technology initiatives. Chances are their clients are wrestling with the same problems and may have developed solutions they would be willing to share with you.
Review your income statements for revenue opportunities and/or cost efficiencies that may be achieved with these technology initiatives. Since these opportunities and efficiencies would be labeled "future benefits", your vendor network may be able to assist you with documenting that these benefits are indeed achievable. How? By talking to their clients.
Again, chances are some of your supplier’s clients have achieved these goals and can share percentage growth in revenue or expense reductions to help support your assumptions. Clients may be more amenable to sharing their success stories on a generalized or “percent savings” basis because it is less likely to violate any confidentialities or proprietary information restrictions.
Get creative with fee structures for consultants. To help minimize your up-front investment and overall financial risk, develop a fee structure that has both you and your consultant sharing in the risk and rewards of the project. This will help reduce your up-front payments to your consultant during the development and implementation phases of the project and minimize your total financial exposure on the project, should it not work out or otherwise meet your expectations. A small monthly retainer can be paid to the consultant during the development and implementation phase with the final payment made when your company receives its financial benefits.
To contact Claudia directly for additional insights, you can e-mail her directly at ClaudiaF@jegi.com. To contact GCN Publishing about our unique two-stage development process, you can e-mail us directly at info@gcnpublishing.com.
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In This Issue
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Finding Ways To Fund The Latest and Greatest
Final Analysis:
GCN’s creative, technical and business team analyzes Cruising World’s cruisingworld.com. See how this publication’s Web site fairs under our constructive critique.
Marketing Tip:
Database Mining -- Combine disparate content, subscription, and commerce databases across company properties to help target featured content, products and related promotions to site visitors.
Upcoming Events:
January 8, 2002
American Business Media Editorial Management Conference
Union League Club
New York, NY
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January 24-25, 2002
American Business Media Fast Track
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February 21, 2002
BPA International
BPA University
Orlando, FL
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March 13, 2002
American Business Media Jesse H. Neal Awards Luncheon
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New York, NY
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