Web first strategy

The reverse publication is a good way to combine online and print. Reverse publication is web first strategy, and print company put news online first. “This means having reporters and editors think first about reporting and producing text and multimedia stories for the web, then writing a text story for the print edition (Grabowicz, Stevens, Rue & Monti, online, 2009)”.

The feature of web first is speed. People could read news at first time, and it is easy for people to catch and undestand the news. The TOB.com launched and used web first strategy of online newspaper website in 2000 (Grabowicz, Stevens, Rue & Monti, online, 2009), and The Guardian decided online first in 2006 (Sweney, online, 2006). The two examples show that the web first strategy widely, and it create a huge readership and making advertising revenue from online.

However, the web first is not good for print. Because it is much quick than newspaper, people will focus on the online news instead of waiting for newspaper. So that the circulation of print will goes down. Mike Alexieff said that: “web is free and storied are speed, why pay for a late news on newspaper (edited by Patten, online, 2008)?”

The advertising is not good for print, online news attracted many advertisers and the classify ads going online. The advertising revenue is almost the mainly, even only revenue for online, so the “dual product” (Doyle, 2002) could not suitable for online.

At the same time, the geography changed, the economies of scale will total different, such as regional newspaper, Lancashire Evening Post. On other side, the online news still has some problems. Even though the online news is speed, it not deep discussion on that news, it’s just a brief induction, and somebody would doubt the truth of the report. And also it’s not work for old people and loyal customers.

Picture via Wikimedia Commons