The online journalism in Latin America

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The online journalism in Latin America

• Austin, Texas, April 16-2004

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Sources of information

• From an online survey, performed by eltiempo.com
• From the analysis of the works submitted to the
  Foundation for a New Iberian-American Journalism
  Award for online journalism

3
Support from

• The Grupo de Diarios América, GDA, is a
  consortium of the fourteen most influential
  newspapers in twelve countries, which include La
  Nación (Argentina), O Globo (Brazil), Zero Hora
  (Brazil), Diario de Sao Paulo (Brazil), El
  Mercurio (Chile), El Tiempo (Colombia), La Nación
  (Costa Rica), Siglo XXI (Guatemala), El Comercio
  (Ecuador), El Universal (Mexico), El Comercio
  (Perú), El Nuevo Día (Puerto Rico), El País
  (Uruguay) and El Nacional (Venezuela).

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Support from

• Foundation for a New Iberian-American Journalism
  (Fundación para el Nuevo Periodismo
  Iberoamericano). Founded in 1984, the foundation
  is a nonprofit presided over by journalist and
  writer Gabriel García Márquez. The foundation
  promotes continuing education of journalists from
  Ibero-American countries.
• Inter American Press Association.

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The survey

• Survey realized through the Internet by
  eltiempo.com, the official site to El Tiempo
  daily paper and the most visited site in
  Colombia. The research was organized by
  journalists Julio César Guzmán and Guillermo
  Franco.
• The survey was answered by more than 70 leaders
  of websites, Internet units or newspapers
  dotcoms. The latter group includes market leaders
  of almost each country in Latin America.

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The survey
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Newspapers dotcoms

• Payroll
• Profile of the online journalists
• Training of the online journalists
• Content
• Reporting cycle
• Revenues

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Newspapers dotcoms

• Payroll

• 68 per cent of the dotcoms is run by eight or
  fewer journalists. At other websites, small
  newsrooms are more common 81 per cent has eight
  or fewer journalists. 

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Newspapers dotcoms

• Payroll

• Dotcom journalists payrolls represent between 5
  and 10 per cent of the total newsrooms (print
  online).

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Newspapers dotcoms

• Profile of the online journalist

• Most of the journalists at dotcoms and newspapers
  in Latin America (87 per cent) are aged between
  20 and 30.

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Newspapers dotcoms

• Profile of the online journalist
• Which of those following sentences do you think
  best describes the perception of print
  journalists about online journalists? 
• a. "They are the future 
• b. That Internet thing is nothing but temporary
  hype
• c. "I want to know more about online journalism"
• d. They are going to cannibalize us
• e. "Theyre just a bunch of nerds"
• f. Their level is lower than ours

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Newspapers dotcoms

• Profile of the online journalist

• Most of the newspaper dotcoms leaders in Latin
  America believe online journalists are seen as
  of a lower level than their colleagues of the
  print edition.

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Newspapers dotcoms

• Profile of the online journalist
• How would you describe the focus of your
  journalism activity?
• a. Mostly oriented towards reporting.
• b. Mostly oriented towards editing and writing.
• c. Mostly oriented towards audio and video
  editing.
• d. Mostly oriented towards creation of
  multimedia products.
• e. Balanced between all the previous options.

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Newspapers dotcoms

• Profile of the online journalist
• None of the Latin American papers dotcoms
  considers reporting as the focus of their
  journalist activity the vast majority believes
  their focus is text writing and editing. A small
  part thinks it is the generation of multimedia
  content.
• On the other hand, at newsy websites that don't
  come from a newspaper reporting is the focus for
  28 per cent of them.

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Newspapers dotcoms

• Almost half, 49 per cent, of the journalists of
  papers digital editions earn less than
  journalists of the print editions and 43 per cent
  earn the same as their print edition
  counterparts.

• Profile of the online journalist

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Newspapers dotcoms

• More than half (53 per cent) of the newspapers
  dotcoms journalists in Latin America doesnt
  have educational background in online journalism
  whereas 47 por cent does.

• Training of the online journalist

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Newspapers dotcoms

• Training of the online journalist
• 61 per cent of the academic programs offered in
  their countries are taught as courses or
  seminars 13 per cent are at the undergraduate
  level and 13 per cent at the postgraduate level.
  More than half of the journalists asked assure
  that the quality of such programs is not good.

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Newspapers dotcoms

• 70 per cent of the people responsible for the
  dotcom departments at the Latin American papers
  believe that their greatest need in terms of
  training is the creation of multimedia products.

• Training of the online journalist

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Newspapers dotcoms

• Content

• 78 per cent says they do not rewrite texts from
  the print edition.
• 91 per cent says they edit to some extent the
  international wires they receive.

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Newspapers dotcoms

• Likewise, audience preferences are first sports
  news, followed by politics-related information,
  the ones regarding law and order and
  entertaiment. 

• Content
• The sections where dotcoms concentrate the
  largest amount of own-generated content are

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Newspapers dotcoms

• Content

• Only 14 per cent of the newsrooms at newspapers
  generate real time content for their online
  editions as part of the companys policies. 9 per
  cent does it out of their own initiative 63 per
  cent just does it occasionally whereas 14 per
  cent does not do it.

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Newspapers dotcoms

• Although 92 per cent of the dotcoms assure they
  are autonomous at defining the focus of their
  information, at least 55 per cent mentioned the
  existence of some type of content withhold
  regarding the print edition.

• Content

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Newspapers dotcoms

• 43 per cent of the Latin American papers dotcoms
  say they use audio and video in their sites. Out
  of that percentage, half say they do it
  sistematically, whereas the other half says they
  used it for special projects.

• Content

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Newspapers dotcoms

• The reporting cycle

• Only 10 per cent of the newspapers dotcoms in
  Latin America says they update the content 24
  hours a day. 61 per cent does it between 15 and
  20 hours. Our reporting cycle 15-20/5.

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Newspapers dotcoms

• The reporting cycle

• 78 per cent says they update their sites as many
  times as needed.

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Newspapers dotcoms

• The reporting cycle

• On weekends, the situation doesnt get any
  better only 5 per cent updates 24 hours 67 per
  cent does it between 12 and 20 hours and 9 per
  cent does not update.

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Newspapers dotcoms

• The reporting cycle
• At the other websites, updating seems to be less
  importance since roughly 60 per cent of the
  participants in the survey updates their content
  for 12 hours or less on weekdays and 22 per cent
  doesn't even cover news on weekends. 

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Newspapers dotcoms

• 83 per cent of the Latin American papers dotcoms
  has discussed the issue of charging for their
  content.
• 61 per cent has already adopted some model of
  user registration.

• Revenue

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Newspapers dotcoms

• For the 39 per cent of the newspapers' dotcoms in
  the region that responded the survey the income
  they receive finance their operation.

• Revenue

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Newspapers dotcoms

• 50 per cent of the papers does not sell Internet
  ads or reports a minimum income related to
  advertising. Just 15 per cent says
  advertising-related revenue represents 75 per
  cent of their total income.

• Revenue

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Newspapers dotcoms

• Revenue
• Barely 10 per cent of the newspapers report
  revenue for the sale of their content to the end
  user, such as archives or databases.
• Only one newspaper reported their classified ads
  as an important source of their income (it
  represents 40 per cent of their total revenue).

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Newspapers dotcoms

• Revenue
• Just a 25 per cent of the newspapers reported
  online service subscription-related revenue and
  only one of them says it represents a significant
  income.
• Likewise, just 25 per cent reports significant
  revenue due to subscriptions to the print edition
  submitted through the Internet.

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Newspapers dotcoms

• Revenue
• On the other hand, 50 per cent of the newspapers
  reports income from licensing content to third
  parties. Additionally, in at least five of those
  companies it represents their most important
  income source.

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Newspapers dotcoms

• Revenue
• On the other hand, 50 per cent of the newspapers
  reports income from licensing content to third
  parties. Additionally, in at least five of those
  companies it represents their most important
  income source.

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• Content on the Web is still driven by text
  narratives.
• The State of the News Media 2004, an Annual
  Report on American Journalism, Project for
  Excellence in Journalism, Columbia University
  Graduate School of Journalism).

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Internet penetration
País Penetración Penetración País Penetración Penetración País Penetración Penetración
País 2001 2005 País 2001 2005 País 2001 2005
Noruega 63,1 76,5 Corea del Sur 34,5 62,7 Rusia 9,4 17,8
Suecia 59,1 74,5 Hong Kong 33,7 59,4 Malasia 8,8 18,3
Dinamarca 52,4 65,3 Alemania 33,3 52,5 Chile 7,6 16,2
Australia 47,7 67,0 Francia 31,3 47,2 Argentina 7,6 22,2
Finlandia 47,7 66,5 Israel 31,1 63,1 Líbano 6,5 25,3
Canadá 45,9 66,6 Emiratos Árabes Unidos 30,5 37,0 México 6,5 28,7
Singapore 45,5 72,6 Japón 29,2 45,9 Brasil 6,0 14,3
Holanda 42,7 62,1 Italia 29,1 55,1 Venezuela 4,1 11,8
Reino Unido 41,2 63,9 Sur África 25,2 48,8 Tailandia 3,6 7,2
Austria 40,4 58,1 Grecia 21,7 42,0 Colombia 2,6 4,5
Irlanda 37,5 67,5 Polonia 19,5 31,3 Arabia Saudita 2,5 8,0
Suiza 36,3 59,6 España 18,8 49,9 Filipinas 2,1 4,7
Bélgica 35,1 53,8 Hungría 16,5 33,9 China 2,0 5,0
Nueva Zelanda 34,8 62,3 Portugal 15,9 27,9 Indonesia 0,9 2,0
Taiwán 34,6 58,0 Republica Checa 13,5 24,2 India 0,6 2,4
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Newspapers dotcoms

• Barely

• Audience