November 5, 2010
Research compiled by Clyde Bentley
When I'm trying to size up an audience, I often find myself humming a jingle from an old auto ad: "Baseball, hot dogs, apple pie and Chevrolet." Linking yourself to basic values is a winning strategy that applies equally well to politicians, pickup trucks and newspapers. The trick is to figure out what those basic values are. Fortunately, the research world provides a helping hand this month.
It's our paper: Americans appear to be a lot more satisfied with their newspapers than they are with incumbent lawmakers, according to the new Pulse Research "Pulse of America" study.
The Portland-based research company worked with newspapers across the country this fall to recruit 1,186 people for an online survey designed to gauge the mood of the nation as reflected in their shopping plans and media preferences. Respondents came from all 50 states.
Admittedly, the people who answered the survey heard about it in the print or online edition of a paper and then self-selected to participate. Nevertheless, it's heartening to hear that 95% of the respondents had read their local paper in the past 24-hours. While the survey didn't gauge news readership, its advertising statistics indicate the paper is being used for more than fish wrap. Retail ads were read frequently or, for some, always by 67% of the respondents. Despite Craigslist, classified ads drew frequent-or-always readership from 56% of the respondents.
The poll also reflected the perception challenge that dashed many incumbents in this week's election. While more than 54% said they were somewhat or very confident about their personal job security, 53% were pessimistic about the stability of the economy.
John Marling, an old colleague from my Oregon days, said the survey is meant to help newspapers separate the emotional chaff from the behavioral wheat of their readers. The purchase plans reported by the respondents paint a picture of Americans who are cautious, but still ready to spend on items that provide real utility.
These newspaper fans are not very likely (6.9%) to get a tattoo, but they are good customers of the barber (44.5%) and hair salon (59.2%). Only 2.9% are ready for a piercing, but 28% plan to get a massage in the next year. In the month before the survey, 11% bought an iPad, 7.9% bought a Kindle or clone, and 22.4% bought a laptop. The sock market is good (44.1%) but nothing like women's apparel (64.5%). And, of course, 17% bought caulk.
Caulk is good.
Unlikeable newspapers: Amy Zerba, a print and online journalist for 18 years, is now an assistant professor at the University of Florida facing up to that gut-wrenching newspaper question: Why don't young folk like me?
Zerba conducted eight focus groups in three cities to look at why two groups of young adults – 18-24-year-olds and 25-34-year-olds – don't read print newspapers. She drilled down to get past pat answers like "its inconvenient" or "I don't have time" to find several fascinating factors. When young people say a paper is inconvenient, they often went beyond the hassle of picking the paper up from a newsstand to include the physical effort of flipping pages, holding and carrying the paper. Environmentally conscious young adults disliked having to find a recycle bin for the paper when a computer can simply be turned off. As on might expect, the computer generation is also impatient with the update time for print products. However, they also feel a newspaper doesn't allow them to multitask the way the Web and television does.
"Lack of time" took two interesting twists in the study. Respondents complained that a newspaper carries too much information for them to easily sort through. There is no Google that takes them to that great little story on Page 12. But perhaps the bigger surprise is that the young adults did not like the "morning routine" image of newspapers. Their's is a world of news-on-the-go, not news and a cup of Joe.
Zerba goes through a long list of other complaints about print newspapers, but ends by letting the young adults describe their "ideal" paper. Their shopping list boils down to five characteristics: brief-and-facts-only articles; local news; diverse perspectives; a magazine size or book-like feel; and a table of contents.
The professor's What Some Young Adults Dislike About Print Newspapers and Their Ideas for Change is well worth the digital trip to the All Academic Research site.
The technology they like: Facebook rather than Twitter, PC rather than e-reader, low-level blogging but news on the smartphone -- welcome to college life 2010. While my fellow academics were perusing their theories, the ECAR Study of Undergraduate Students and Information Technology polled their students for an enlightening look at the digital lives of U.S. young adults.
The annual survey of nearly 37,000 college students showed close to universal daily use (90.4%) of Facebook or MySpace, but Twitter and similar microblogs were checked by less than half (43.3%) of the students -- and then only a few days per week. That became a 77% - 21% split when the students took their social networking to their mobile phones -- leaving Twitter a somewhat weak mobile publishing strategy.
The only daily tech habit that exceeds Facebook is (no surprise) text messaging (92.3%).
Desktop PCs are passe in the dorms -- almost 90% of the students used laptops or netbooks. E-readers, including the Kindle and the iPad, were just a minor blip on the student horizon when the survey was conducted from February to April. The researchers realized, however, that the IPad boom started just months later could change the statistics in the next edition of the survey. But the real rising star among platforms is the mobile phone. Nearly half the students said they use a phone to surf the Web every day. And here's the good news: 85% of the students checked news, weather and similar information on their mobile phones. Now you just have to make sure your news is there for them to read.
Attracting young adults to our publications is on everyone's wish list, so this comprehensive-but-readable report is like an early Christmas present. And joy of joys, it's free.
The Woman Web: The Internet is now vies with chats as the vehicle of choice for the woman-to-woman network that some experts say drives much of American society. We've long known that women make most of the purchase decisions in a family, but researchers from Harbinger and Ipsos found that only 28% of the women polled make those decisions without seeking some kind of advice.
A survey of U.S. and Canadian women showed that 70% of those asked rely on Web sites to research buying information, though 58% still seek word-of-mouth advice. But the statistics change when those same women want to share their shopping tips. By far (92%), the women said they prefer to tell family and friends about best buys face-to-face. However, the Web plays a powerful second fiddle, with 32% posting to Web sites, 27% putting it on their Facebook or MySpace page, 11% blogging and 7% Tweeting.
Harbinger's Deborah Adams aptly summed up the new communications model: "It may no longer matter how well you know the source of information or opinions and there are almost no limits to how information and opinions from a single source can be amplified across the off – and online worlds."
That's a good reminder to journalists that they are just one part of the news flow -- and that the message may go through many filters before reaching the person-formerly-known-as-reader. Much of our job is providing the basic information that goes into the person-to-person network. The challenge is to pull enough revenue from that complex system to support the reporting that feeds it.
Contact Me:
E-mail - bentleycl@missouri.edu Twitter: http://twitter.com/MizzouBentley
