Comments on: How news sites in Norway engage readers more than in the UK

By: Even the most eager newspaper readers in the world are dropping out | BetaTales

Thu, 16 Sep 2010 19:22:50 +0000

[...] How news sites in Norway engage readers more than in the UK (betatales.com) [...]

By: John Einar Sandvand

John Einar Sandvand — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 18:05:22 +0000

John,

I think you are right. Obviously people have many more choices searching for news in English than in a small language as Norwegian, especially if you look for national or local news. That being said, the sites used in this example are not without competition – in fact they operate in a market with seven national news sites.

By: John Stodder

John Stodder — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 08:34:37 +0000

I think the answer is probably as simple as this: If you want news in English, you have almost limitless choices. Go on Google and type in a hot search term, and you might get pointed toward a news site anywhere in the US, UK, Australia, Singapore, India, Pakistan, Israel, Canada and English language versions of many other news sites like Der Spiegel.

If you want news in Norwegian, however, your choices are probably limited to those few sites you looked at.

It’s an argument for niche-focused news sites, viewed through a slightly different prism, that of an isolated linguistic group rather than a subject matter or a geographical area, although those two factors play into it as well.