The Brits Are Coming! UK News Media Head For U.S., But Can They Make A Buck?

Several British news organizations are making efforts to tailor publishing efforts to an American audience. The IHT summarizes some of the headway made to date:

Times: Has already started distributing in print on the east coast and launched a global-facing web homepage, last week attracted 75 percent U.S. visitors to a U.S. presidential campaign story, will now use search engine marketing to attract American readers

Guardian: Appointed Michael Tomasky editor of forthcoming GuardianAmerica.com in May, has long pulled in more overseas visitors than domestic (2.5 monthly from America) and more than read in print (not forgetting, Guardian in March said it would launch a U.S. version of the Commentisfree blogs portal in a bid to produce liberal American comment)

FT: U.S. edition now beating its UK parent on circulation

Daily Mail and The Independent: One a right-wing tabloid, the other a liberal-thinking sheet, websites for each have more U.S. visitors than domestic, comScore says;

BBC Worldwide: investing more in BBC America channel to drive up awareness of the corporation’s non-news output, more promotion for BBC World, too.

Whether UK journalism is more liberal, more solid or just a novelty for U.S. readers, organizations clearly regard America as a new market opened up by the web. One problem, however, says IHT: “Though the internet is theoretically borderless, advertising budgets are still typically carved up according to national boundaries and media format. At media-buying firms, there is no category yet for the newly acquired American audiences of these British papers.”