Analysis of Blog Coverage in Major Media and Public Affairs Publications

1
Analysis of Blog Coverage in Major Media and
Public Affairs Publications

• Prepared by StrategyOne
• October 2006

2
Methodology

• StrategyOne analyzed coverage appearing in major
  media and public affairs publications - and
  issue-related publications for mentions of blogs
  and bloggers. The publications included in this
  analysis were
• USA
• The Washington Post
• The New York Times
• The Hill
• Roll Call
• National Journal
• CQ Weekly
• CQ Today
• CQ HealthBeat
• CQ Homeland Security
• The publications were searched using the Factiva
  database. Only those articles with the terms
  blog, blogger, blogging or Web log were
  included in the detailed analysis of individual
  blog sites. In all 908 articles were analyzed.
• For the time-series analysis of blog mentions
  over time, the same publications were search
  using the terms above, however, the position of
  the terms in the articles was not restricted. .

• France
• Le Monde
• Libération
• Le Figaro

• UK
• The Times
• The Daily Telegraph
• Financial times
• The Guardian
• The Independent
• Daily Mail

3
United States - Most Frequently Referenced Blog
Sites

• Public Affairs-oriented articles referenced the
  blog, Daily Kos, far more frequently than any
  other site.
• Arianna Huffingtons The Huffington Post came in
  second with mentions in less than half the number
  of Daily Kos.

Number of Articles
4
United States - Quarterly Volume of Blog Articles
in Public-Affairs Press

• The frequency of articles mentioning blogs or
  bloggers has steadily increased over the last
  three years, with an all-time peak of 766 in the
  second quarter of 2006.

Number of Articles
5
United States - Non-Politically Focused Blogs

• Articles in public affairs news outlets most
  frequently referenced blogs focusing on the topic
  of politics. Political blogs accounted for 88.5
  percent of all blogs mentioned.
• Topical focus of non-political blogs covered a
  wide variety of topics, but were mentioned
  infrequently.

Number of Articles
6
UK- Quarterly Volume Blog Articles in Major Press
Outlets

• The frequency of articles holding a mention of
  blog has sharply increased over the last three
  years, reaching its all-time peak of 246 in the
  third quarter of 2006.

7
UK - Blogging by Topic

• The most common subject commented on by bloggers
  in the UK over the last year was politics in
  general, with 44 of all articles focussing on
  this subject.
• A further popular blogging topic was the Iraq
  War, followed by the environment and the Middle
  East, with a combined 21 of all articles.

Number of topic mentions
8
UK - Main Bloggers on Public Affairs

• Political blogs get most media coverage with Iain
  Dales attracting most coverage.
• David Miliband is quoted in the media as he
  follows his career in connection with the Labour
  Party, with other independent blogs also getting
  an equal mention in the media.

Number of references
9
UK- Frequency of Bloggers by Publication

• The Guardian newspaper reported the highest
  number of blogging articles in the last 12
  months, with 50 of all reports.
• Of the main UK publications with articles on
  blogging, The Financial Times and the Sunday
  Times held the least coverage.

Number of references
10
France - Quarterly Volume of Blog Articles in
Major Media

• The frequency of articles holding a mention of
  blog has steadily increased over the last three
  years, with each quarter of 2006 returning in
  excess of 100 articles.
• The largest volume of articles so far has been in
  the second quarter of 2006.

11
France - Blogging by Topic

• Most coverage was focusing on the political
  debate and the choice of candidates prior to the
  presidential campaign in 2007.
• Media mentions of blogs focusing on other public
  affairs areas was minimal with limited interest
  in education and the suburbs crisis.

Number of references
12
France - Main Bloggers on Public Affairs

• Political blogs get most media coverage with
  Alain Juppés (former Bordeaux Mayor) attracting
  most coverage re his comeback in politics.
• Nicolas Sarkozy and Segolène Royal, both
  candidates to the next French presidential
  election are quoted by the media along other
  presidential contenders for the election.

Number of references
13
France - Frequency of Bloggers by Main
Publication

• Le Figaro newspaper reported the highest number
  of articles on blogging in the last year, with
  52 of all reports being in this publication.
• Of the other two main papers which had articles
  on blogging, Libération and Le Monde held 25 and
  23 respectively.