PNG Online Media Statistics – Newspapers vs Blogs
For centuries now there’s been a battle between newspapers and blogs – well, maybe for the past five years, but therein lies exactly my point.
It’s taken less than a decade for blogs to start offering mainstream newspapers serious competition on the internet, and in developed countries such as South Korea and Finland where internet saturation rates are close to 100% – blogging is big business.
I was having a browse through Papua New Guinea website statistics last night courtesy of Alexa.com and I ended up drawing up a graph of Alexa’s findings, comparing statistics between PNG online media, some of which are extremely surprising! (Note: click on the graph below for a better view).
Firstly, the most popular online media site about PNG is a blog – Robert@PNG. It’s closest online media newspaper rival is Post-Courier (PC) ranked 3’rd, but PC is however beaten by PNGBD which is the 2’nd most popular PNG website. The National newspaper ranks 5th overall in popularity.
When it comes to competition between PNG’s two dailies, the Post-Courier and The National, there are some interesting revelations. Although PC is more popular, The National has increased its growth of online hits by an impressive 140% over the past 3 months – 50% more growth than PC. However, both newspapers and all other online PNG media are beaten comprehensively when it comes to growth in number of hits over the past 3 months with Tubuans & Dukduks recording a whopping 180% increase in total hits (I’m quite proud).
Ok – so it’s cool to attract a large number of hits, but how long do people actually spend reading your website? Well, in regards to PNG’s two dailies, readers spend an average of 5.3 min/day on The National website (2’nd highest overall) while the PC claims a measely 1.8 min/day (the lowest overall – all PNG Blogs do a lot better). However – readers of Robert@PNG spend an incredible 43.1 min/day – unbelievable! (I had to check that statistic three times).
Who is reading what – and from where? The National continues to dominate the online newspaper rivalry with the PC with the following statistic – 90.3 % of it’s total online readers come from within PNG itself. Only 77.4% of total readers of the PC are from within PNG – the country in second place providing readers is the United Sates compared to Germany for The National.
Now this is weird, the Masalai Blog can boast that more Indians read the blog than do PNGeans – which is true. Following the same theme, PNGBD seems to be extremely popular with India and in second place, Pakistan! What is up with that – is PNG experiencing a sudden influx of Indians and Pakistanis?
Of the PNG Blogs, Tubuans & Dukduks has the most hits from computers within PNG while Malum Nalu and Robert@PNG are quite popular with Australians. I would have loved to found out what country is in second place regarding Tubuans & Dukduks readership, but alas, the data is not available – yet.
NOTE:
To read how Alexa’s traffic rankings are determined, click here.
These statistics were true and correct on Tuesday, 21 April 2009.
The Garamut 
Interesting statistics Tavurvur – congrats on the 180% in growth of hits. I’ve noticed that the other PNG blogs have had a substantial head-start on you but looks like Tubuans/Dukduks will survive!
T,
Thanks for the plug my dear friend!
Interestingly, I came across an article this morning by Andrew Keen on “Blogs are Dead”…
http://andrewkeen.typepad.com/the_great_seduction/2009/04/blogs-are-dead-long-live-blogs.html
Here’s an excerpt:
Is blogging dead? Last year, questioning the future of the iconic weblog would have had me institutionalized. But today, in the face of the dramatic explosion of real-time social media services like Twitter, the future of blogging is far from certain…
(End of excerpt)
Hey bro…
Where to from here?
R
Rob,
I read the link – i’m not too sure with that article. I think blogging in the developed world and blogging in the developing world are two quite different concepts courtesy of the environments – I think blogging will keep going.
Where to from here? – what about a PNG Blogging Association?
Good post, interesting stuff. Congrats on the 180% 🙂
Hi Tavurvur,
My flag counter shows that I get most of my viewers from the USA, with PNG a long way behind on third, however, there is no mention of the USA.Just look at the flag counter on my blog. I also get a lot of feedback from the USA. Why no mention of the USA?
Malum,
Simple answer to your question re the flags, counters and hits from the USA… no two stats collection software/services/scripts are going to ever be the same.
The question then arises as to which service is more accurate and this has no clear nor definite answer. Also realise that the way that each service collects data can be and is different. Most leverage java script and the reader visiting your site might choose not to allow execution of java script from that site.
Etc, etc, etc….
R
Malum,
Another reason may be that Alexa bases some of its statistics on a time frame of 3 months. So – your influx of US hits might be greater reflected down the line.
Also – multiple requests for the same URL on the same day by the same user are counted as a single page view with Alexa.
Thanks for your thoughts gentlemen. Food for thought…vy the way, my blog dropped now to 25 a couple of weeks ago, but has now risen back to No. 8. The sky is the limit for me! Good night!
Tavuvur, thanks for this post. I regularly read some of the blogs mentioned and both of the online papers. I am reading some anthropological literature regarding blogging and so I found this post really interesting!
Finah,
Thanks for you comment. What actual anthropological literature are you reading in regards to blogging?
T
M+T,
Both of your blogs win me hands down as far as content. Then… how come my blog has sat at No 1 Alexa (PNG) for close to six months? Perhaps there’s more to getting quality rankings than just quality content. What else is there? That is the $64,000 question ladies and gentlemen!!
M,
You might reach number 1 yet!
T,
Last year a few of the “lads” toyed with the idea of a PNG Blogging Conference. Perhaps its time to revisit dispela tingting.
R
Hi All,
Great Work T, and not surprised by your 180%, if you had started earlier you’d probably be No.1. 🙂
I’ve popped in to see the rankings from time to time on Alexia and they fluctuate from time to time, at one stage I was up at No. 5 and then I was at 15 and then I’ve moved back up so its not absolutely accurate, but its a good guide nevertheless.
Yeah some of us did discuss a conference/association for bloggers last year, I think T if we can discuss it among ourselves and other popular blog owners to see what can come of it? Because one of the main reasons we are doing so well and will be around for a little longer is because of the scarce amount of media companies in PNG producing original content. So we in effect fill a void to some extent.
In regards to the newspapers, the reason I believe that the National has seen a late surge is because they recently redesigned their website late last year. So I have a feeling that this has assisted in that growth. PC on the other hand is dominant because with the introduction of their weekend paper, this has meant more content and they have successfully been placing that on their website in addition to their daily content.
I guess in terms of the future, the possible scenario’s could be likely:
– Bloggers get bought or paid by dailies to boost their readership both online and offline, or
– Bloggers get together to form their own online newspaper, which could lead into distribution through other media outlets like radio, print, TV, or
– Dailies start and promote their own bloggers to keep up, or
Emmanuel,
I think you hit the nail on the head. The reason why Blogs will survive in PNG for a long while to come is that we do fill a void of orginal media content production. Apart from the two dailies and the SC – original content is lacking. There isn’t even proper professional media-publishing outlets. If you look at industrialised countries – they have a hell of a lot more than 3 newspapers.
I think all of us will agree that blogging has opened up to us huge networking opportunities – classic example, I’ve had contact with somebody from the Smithsonian – without this blog, it would never have happened.
The question is – how do we maximise the potential of blogging about Papua New Guinea?
Tavurvur
I discussed the blogging conference with Nimo Kama from the PMG Media Council about two weeks ago and he was very keen on the idea. Give me your correct email addresses so that I’ll get in touch with all of you. I’ve also had interest from Divine Word University and UPNG about blogging…I’ve been asked to go and teach. Two months ago, a French TV crew visited the country, thanks to my blog, and did a documentary on the numerous social problems in Port Moresby…I was paid to take them around. I get emails from all over the world every day asking questions all and sundry about PNG. My Adsense account is increasing by the day and pretty soon Google will be sending me my first US$100 dollars. I can programme my stories to run at a certain time, and I don’t have to go online to make a posting, just use email. Possibilities are endless and might turn my blogging into a fulltime business which encompasses not only news but tourism, marketing, photography, etc, etc…the sky is the limit!
Malum,
I’ll send you an email regarding the blogging conference.
I think it’s a brilliant idea that should be pursued. Although – I do think that a PNG Bloggers Association may be the step in the right direction.
T
Great work guys, Malum looks like you might be the first one to start explaining to us how we can make money from all the time we spend on our blogs. This is very exciting.
BTW, just a side issue here, watch this video on how design actually improved newspaper readership: http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/jacek_utko_asks_can_design_save_the_newspaper.html
[…] Tavurvur: PNG Online Media Statistics – Newspapers vs Blogs […]
The Best of News Feeds #16 | Robert@PNG said this on April 23, 2009 at 4:51 AM |
[…] Actually while you’re here you can see my weekly/monthly/annual stats since 2006 here and read a good post on PNG blog statistics by Tavuruvr here. […]
WP Statistics Gone Crazy « the Masalai blog said this on April 23, 2009 at 11:27 PM |
Hi guys, I’ve installed a couple of cool new Wowzio widgets on my blog which makes it more attractive and I’ve noticed that my stats are climbing.
T,
I’ve looked and looked…
What and where are the Wow… widgets?
R
Rob,
You’re looking at the wrong blog – Malum added the Wowzio widgets onto his blog – not me!
Tavurvur
T,
I must have left that comment after a heavy night on the Livex!
My apologies mate.
R
NB: What do you get when you cross WordPress-MU, Buddypress and bbPress?
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