In November 2001, OneWorld International launched a news syndication service on the Yahoo! News 'World' section. The service made OneWorld the fourth source for world news on Yahoo! (the others being AP, Reuters and NPR) and represented the first-ever non-profit world news syndication to a major Internet portal. OneWorld on Yahoo! features daily stories focusing on events relating to human rights, world poverty, social justice, the environment and sustainable development.

Like on OneWorld.net (www.oneworld.net), the syndication on Yahoo! aims to use the Internet to give a voice to those typically overlooked by the mainstream media and policy makers. The syndication on Yahoo! particularly intends to amplify those voices to a new mainstream audience.

One year after the launch, in October 2002, OneWorld implemented an online survey to check whether the news service was meeting its aims and to measure user satisfaction. OneWorld USA conducted this survey with the financial support of Cable and Wireless, the global telecommunications group.

The results of the survey show that OneWorld on Yahoo! does succeed in reaching a new mainstream audience. Unlike the visitors to OneWorld.net, the audience of the Yahoo! News service is USA based (83%), male (66%) and middle aged (41% between 36 and 50). About one-third of the respondents work in the business sector and only 12% in the non-profit sector (OneWorld.net: 9% business; 31% non-profit sector).

Another encouraging outcome of the survey is that more than half of the respondents (55%) say that a OneWorld on Yahoo! News article has influenced their thinking on current events. A surprisingly high number (23%) stated that they have taken action as a result of such stories.

Examples of those actions are: Writing letters to America Congress members and other public officials, taking part in campaigns and demonstrations, making donations to charity organisations, linking to the stories on websites and in newsletters, using them as input for discussion and forwarding them to NGO grassroots organisations.

This is the first time OneWorld has had such clear proof of the impact of its content on users. The idea now is to include more action-related links in the articles on Yahoo!.

The online survey was only the first stage of evaluating OneWorld on Yahoo! News. As a follow-up, three focus groups will be conducted in early 2003. One focus group will take place in India with OneWorld partners that have been highlighted frequently on Yahoo! and two other focus groups will take place with users of the service in the USA.