Roz Edward, national content director for Real Times Media LLC, the Courier’s parent company, said it’s important for newspapers to be accessible through various digital platforms because “that’s the way the industry is going.”
According to reports Edward has viewed, by 2016 90 percent of people will be getting their news through their mobile phones and social media sites.
“The Courier has always been a leader in bringing the news and implementing new strategies to do that. We were one of the first Black newspapers to have a full service website,” said Broadus. “We’ve been the trend setter.”
Like Broadus, Edwards said since entering her position two years ago, the Courier has always had a steady traffic.
According to statistics from Google Analytics, which were provided by Edward, approximately 2.5 million individuals visited the Courier’s website in 2014 and there were 5 million pageviews.
In 2013, the New Pittsburgh Courier’s website was nationally recognized as the top Black website when it was presented the award for Digital Excellence by the National Newspaper Publishers Association at its annual Merit Awards.
While the web affords the opportunity for newspapers to reach a broader audience, Broadus said it also allows them “to archive and document history so it will be available for all time.”
With its 105 years of documented Black history, readers can access the Courier archives via its website. All the Courier’s editions that were available on microfilm, dating back to 1910, have been digitized by ProQuest and are at its readers’ fingertips.
As for the Courier’s digital future, Broadus said it includes doing more with the YouTube site as well as continuing to grow into a web-based enterprise and increasing its revenue, which entails increasing its’ number of impressions and online readership.
“We’re able to offer advertisers many ways to reach an important consumer market,” Broadus said. “The print edition is still our primary source of revenue, but as with all other media, we have to generate revenue from online to survive moving ahead.”
(For more information on the website, visit https://www.newpittsburghcourier.com.)
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