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Many publishers began experimenting with the
internet in the 1990s when readers started moving online to get their news.
Though those operations have grown quickly, they still remain a small part
of overall revenue.
Tribune Co, now in the throes of a boardroom
battle over its future, said internet operations could generate 12 to 15 per
cent of publishing revenue by 2010. That compared to a forecast $US222
million ($NZ365 million) in 2006, or 6 per cent of revenue.
"We will expand our already significant
internet businesses and will invest in additional interactive ventures,"
Tribune Chief Executive Dennis FitzSimons told analysts at the Newspaper
Association of America's (NAA) Mid-Year Media Review.
The publisher of the Los Angeles Times and the
Chicago Tribune also wants to increase its ability to share news,
programmers and other content among its websites, newspapers and television
stations.
Media General Inc, which publishes the Tampa
Tribune and owns 26 television stations, touted an internet strategy that
began over a decade ago and forecast online revenue of $US50 million in
2008, up from an expected $US30 million in 2006.
"Our online audience has grown significantly,
and strong double-digit growth rates continue," said CEO Marshall Morton.
"We expect the division in the aggregate to become profitable in 2007."
Newspaper publishers have grappled with making
their internet business a major profit source. Advertisers have followed
readers to the web, but competition is fierce due to a broad array of
internet sites and web journals, or blogs.
The internet accounts for about 5 per cent of
newspaper companies' revenue on average, but it is growing by about 30 per
cent annually, according to the NAA. At the same time, print operations have
been plagued by declining readership and rising production costs.
The New York Times Co, for example, on Monday
said it still faced a challenging advertising market.
But the publisher of the New York Times and
the Boston Globe said its online information venture about.com would begin
to boost earnings this year, rather than next year as previously expected.
Belo Corp predicted newspaper revenue growth
in the low to mid-single digit percentages this year. The company said it
was shifting more resources online to capitalize on a 57 per cent rise in
web advertising for the first quarter alone.
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