USA Today will launch a new e-edition and its first regular weekend product on Monday, August 3.
The Gannett-owned paper was already offering an e-edition that had limited reach — making up about 1200 of USA Today’s average daily circulation of 2,113,725. This new offering will be sent as a companion product to all print subscribers and included in USA Today’s overall ABC measurement for circulation. The e-edition is also available as a standalone subscription, but the main intent is to further engage existing readers, as evidenced by a promotional campaign for the e-edition that is running only on USAToday.com and in the print edition.
“USA Today had an e-edition in the past, but with limited reach,” explained Alexandra Nicholson, manager of communications for USA Today, in an e-mail. “As our audiences look for content on multiple platforms, we strive to meet their needs. Launching a more robust e-Edition will enable us to do that.”
The new e-edition offers interactive content, including videos, puzzles and games, polls, links and search. It will also be used to deliver USA Today’s first regular weekend product, USA Today Extra. Extra will be available as a Saturday and Sunday e-edition for print and e-edition subscribers.
USA Today’s e-edition launch mirrors digital trends throughout the newspaper industry, where falling print ad revenue is pushing publishers to find new modes of content and ad delivery. The Boston Globe, for example, launched its GlobeReader e-edition for print subscribers on July 1. GlobeReader, like USA Today e-edition, offers expanded online features such as slide shows, videos and interactive graphics.
Decisions made by the Audit Bureau of Circulations Board this week also reflected the digital trend. The Board agreed to a year-long extended testing of consolidated report that allows newspapers to display a combination of print, online and other audience data. ABC released the first of these reports for the Chicago Tribune and the Tribune Media Group in June.
