Asahi Shimbun launched Asahi.com in August 1995. Today, the site gets an average of 6 million page views per day. Reporter Wayne Robins recently e-mailed Asahi.com for a few details about the site's inner workings: Q: Do you post breaking news 24 hours a day, or do you maintain "newspaper" deadlines and schedules? A: We post breaking news almost 24 hours a day. Editorial staff work from six in the morning to two or three in the morning. Early morning hours are covered by our staff in the San Jose office. Our company has a "flash news department" in the editorial division. They contact the correspondent or writer to cover what happened after the deadlines. Q: Does the online staff work closely with the newspaper newsroom, or is there tension or a division between the two sides? A: We have Asahi.com's news booth on the same floor as the editorial division. We work closely with the newspaper editorial team. The newspaper has limited space. When they write the article with the interview, we sometimes post the whole text of the interview, while only the summary and the article is published in the paper. The newsroom also puts a note at the end of the article, such as "You can read the whole text of the interview on Asahi.com." We also provide Web-only columns and features. As for the English-language version, we don't have an editorial staff for the English page. It is mainly the reproduction of the daily English newspaper and the weekly bilingual newspaper of our company. The English page is updated once a day and we don't provide any breaking news. The average page view of the English page is 100,000 per day. Q: Do you use special graphics, video, audio, or Flash to make more of an interactive experience? A: We use graphics, Flash and slide shows, however, not as often as the news sites in the United States, such as CNN.com or MSNBC.com. We are trying to provide a more interactive experience and seeking training for our staff to create that kind of content. Q: Is Asahi.com supported by advertising? Is there enough advertising revenue to make it profitable? A: Yes, the revenue for Asahi.com is from advertising. As the recovery from the recession is very slow, the advertising market is not as good as it used to be. Therefore, the advertising revenue is not enough. Q: I see that you have different advertising packages for each section of the online edition. Do you have any research that shows whether advertisers prefer banner or tile ads? Have the advertisers responded to this very detailed explanation of space available? Do readers like or dislike banner or tile ads? A: The advertising division of Asahi Shimbun does research and decides the type of advertising packages. It seems more and more advertisers in Japan consider the banner as banal. They prefer a different type of creative using animation and other techniques. As for the reader, I suppose they dislike any type of advertising. (How about you?) Many of them don't complain for they can read the news for free in return. We check the advertising so that it won't be too annoying. As many of our readers are office workers, we are very cautious about ads with music. (It's embarrassing if the sound suddenly comes out of your PC in your office, isn't it?) We are kind of conservative about the ads on the top page. The new type of ads using rich media are first posted on inside pages and then we check the reactions of our readers. Q: With sections like Life and Woman, are you trying to market Asahi.com to a different demographic audience than the usual newspaper readers? A: Yes. The majority of the readers of our newspaper are office workers, older, and more men than women. We are trying to reach the readers in their 20s and 30s and women. Q: Are Japanese newspapers such as Asahi Shimbun suffering a loss or decline in advertising similar to that of most U.S. newspapers? A: Yes, very much. Q: In the United States both newspapers and their electronic editions are trying to appeal to younger people, those who are teenagers or in their 20s who do not have the habit of reading the newspaper. Is this a challenge for your company? A: It is often said in Japan that "younger people don't read books or newspapers." Some say the Internet is disturbing the newspaper business by providing the news for free or at a cheap price. We consider that the online edition is important, for it enables us to reach the younger generation. By utilizing all types of media, we can cover all time and all generations. If you have more interest in our industry, I recommend you contact our association, The Japan Newspaper Publishers & Editors Association.
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