Press Release

Online news study shows importance of news portals

January 23rd 2003

Online news sites are the winners in the battle for hearts and minds on the Internet, according to a survey conducted for MSNBC.

The survey of 351 users found that most adult workers now spend more time reading news and information online than they do consuming traditional media such as TV, newspapers, radio and magazines.

The largest share - 35 per cent said they used the Internet for news during the day. 37 per cent said they use the Internet for national news compared to 35 per cent using traditional media.

Nick Gilbert, NewsNow CEO, says this trend is evident from the use of NewsNow's news portal which collects news from over <$ 6,000 sources: "A lot of our traffic is during the working day, it's clear that for the majority of people accessing news, online is very important. From an employer's point of view its key that people have quick access and don't waste time surfing around. We like to think that our portal goes a long way to meeting the needs of staff and management in this respect."

NewsNow has over 300,000 users of its free portal which tracks news in six key categories as well as 500 subject-based newsfeeds.

"I find it an excellent aid to keeping informed and searching news," said Herbert Wright, a writer for Business Age.

"I keep it on constantly within a browswer window so that I can monitor changes 24/7," says Matt Hanrahan, analyst, Dalcais Consultancy. "A news portal like NewsNow is vital to tracking and scanning news as well as making the most of your time."

The research was carried out by Market Facts for MSNBC.com in the US.

NewsNow recently relaunched its service with a new site design for simpler news tracking.

New features include:

Business Services including intranet, extranet and email alerts
Client Login section for easy access to personalised services
Submit-a-site option for new publishers
Case Studies of existing customers
Frequently Asked Questions all about online news monitoring

Contact Details

Struan Bartlett	Managing Director
Tel:	+44 (0)845 838 8890

January 23rd 2003, NewsNow Publishing Limited, London England

Background Information

NewsNow is Europe's pioneering Internet news monitoring agency and supplier of tailored, aggregated newsfeeds.

NewsNow's customers hail from the world's PR, marketing, communications and web design departments of SME, national and multinational businesses and charitable organisations.

These organisations use NewsNow to gather and monitor news relevant to their company, clients, competitors, market industry and sector. Their news feeds may be delivered to their inbox, to their intranet or extranet or alternatively to NewsNow's secure web archive interface.

NewsNow is one of only a few companies able to offer this kind of online monitoring. Its customers include Exxon, Rolls-Royce, AMD and Sony Computer Entertainment.

NewsNow Key Points

Searches over 42711 sources in real time
Monitors news in over 146 countries and 20 languages
Searches most leading international, national and regional newspapers; consumer, trade and technical titles; government press pages; press releases; blogs, webzines, newsletters and leading underground and alternative publications
Offers sophisticated positional and proximity matching - the ability to specify keywords and phrases and the relationships between them
No expertise necessary - professional staff take care of your changing needs
Sources added or removed on request
30 day news archive
No per-article charges
Fixed monthly fees
Delivery by email alert, via secure web archive interface or to any intranet or website

NewsNow History

NewsNow was founded in 1997. It began as a news aggregation website (www.NewsNow.co.uk) that fast became the UK's leading news portal. Today the portal features over 3300 topics and attracts 136 million page impressions monthly.

In 1998 NewsNow began delivering tailored news feeds to customers' websites.

In 2001, the addition of a sophisticated custom search engine capable of full-text search enabled NewsNow to deliver high-quality but cost-effective tailored Internet news monitoring solutions to PR, marketing and communications professionals of SME, national and multinational businesses and charitable organisations.