What influences small newspapers to decide to publish online news?

Newspaper Research Journal, Summer 2003 by Lowrey, Wilson

Approximately 4,000 newspapers publish online editions, and of these, around 1,300 are small community non-dailies, while fewer than 70 are considered major metro dailies.1 Yet most studies of online news content and production have focused on daily papers, particularly on larger dailies.2 Smaller online operations deserve focus because they are understudied, because there is greater variability in rate of online adoption among small papers, and because many online news sites lack interactivity.3 Greater audience-journalist connectivity could have an especially high impact in smaller, less pluralistic communities.4

Research Questions

RQ1:

Why have some smaller newspaper organizations decided to publish online while others have not?

RQ2:

Why does the level of site interactivity differ across smaller news organizations?

The literature suggests possible explanations for the lack of innovation in news Web sites. Online staffers and managers feel they are spread too thin to create truly interactive and original content.5 Online editors at smaller papers are more likely to hire individuals straight from college, who are less socialized to the journalism profession and its mission of public service.6 Also, there is a concern that online staffers are on unequal footing with their print counterparts in daily newsroom negotiations.7

Findings suggest both large papers and papers with separate online staffs are more likely to produce original content for the Web and to add interactive features such as discussion groups.8 Hindman, Ernst and Richardson proposed that papers in smaller, less pluralistic communities would be less likely to create Web sites because their audiences would be less likely to demand them, but the relationship did not prove significant.9 In studies of news sites in urban areas, both Lin and Jeffres and Kiernan and Levy found that market size is mostly unrelated to how media website content is shaped.10 Kiernan and Levy also found that competition had little impact on content,11 but Chan-Olmstead and Park found that broadcast sites leading their markets were likely to offer a greater variety of content.12

Concepts and Hypotheses

Literature suggests influences on decision-making about news stem from a variety of levels, including higher-level factors, which constrain effects of lower-level (e.g., newsroom-level) factors.13 One higher level factor is degree of community pluralism. It should be the case that the more structurally pluralistic the newspaper's community, the more advantaged the community's citizens will be.14 Communities that are less pluralistic will less likely have easy access to the Internet or to computers, and its citizens are less likely to have expertise in computer-based information.

H1a:

The higher the degree of structural pluralism in a newspaper's community, the greater the likelihood the newspaper will produce an online news product.

More pluralistic communities have more stakeholders, more voices and more conflict, and therefore the perceived need for interactivity and feedback should be greater.

H1b:

The higher the degree of structural pluralism in a newspaper's community, the greater the degree of interactivity in the newspaper's Web site.

Organizational complexity should also be a factor. An organization is more complex if it is larger in size and is owned by large, distant corporate owners.15 Larger, more complex organizations have more differentiated staffs, greater resources and the ability to take financial risks-all of which should facilitate specialization in Website development.

H2a:

The more complex the newspaper organization, the greater the likelihood the newspaper will produce an online news product.

H2b:

The more complex the newspaper organization, the greater the degree of interactivity in the newspaper's Web site.

Multiple newspapers in the same circulation area split readers' and advertisers' dollars. Papers in competition should therefore be more likely to adopt new ways of reaching readers-e.g., Web sites-and to adopt features on sites that build connections between readers and the newspaper-e.g., interactive features.

H3a:

The greater the intramedia competition for an online newspaper, the greater the likelihood the newspaper will produce an online news product.

H3b:

The greater the intramedia competition for an online newspaper, the greater the degree of interactivity in the newspaper's Web site.

The final set of predictors derives from the lower level of the hierarchical model-the newsroom level. Both trade and academic publications cite manpower shortage, lack of staff influence and editor background16 as major reasons some newspapers offer few features and little interactivity on their sites.

H4:

The larger the online production staff, the greater the degree of interactivity in the newspaper's Web site.

H5:

The more involved online staffers are in planning news content, the greater the degree of interactivity in the newspaper's Web site.

H6:

The higher the degree of education of the online manager, the greater the degree of interactivity in the newspaper's Web site.