Recently on Poynter's Online-News discussion list, Susan Hardin (Director of Online for Tucson Newspapers) posed an excellent question (republished here with her permission).
She asked: "About how much of your total online audience is out of your [geographically defined market] and how much is in it? We have a customer who is interested in reaching only our audience outside of our market. I know it sounds odd, but it's true."
In a separate e-mail to me, she elaborated: "I would be interested in which sources are used to determine this data if zip code is not being collected under registration."
So, what's your experience? Please comment below.
Also, here's a question I'd like to add on to Hardin's: What is your news organization doing to actively leverage non-local online audiences as part of your revenue model? For instance, if Google News is bringing you lots of non-local traffic, how can you make that work for your business?
Even the most basic of web analytics programs offer IP...
