Center Spotlight
Print in the Mix is "a unique site demonstrating the role of print as a viable information medium in the marketing mix." This free resource is published by the Printing Industry Center. Sample Fast Fact:
New research from Affinity's Vista service about ads on the front covers of magazines -- where advertising had long been seen as controversial within the industry -- finds that advertising can work very well and often outperform ads placed in a magazine's other premium spots.
Read the full fast fact here. Have you visited Print in the Mix yet? Find out how this site can help you 'make the case' for print!
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About the Center
Dedicated to the study of major business environment influences in the printing industry precipitated by new technologies and societal changes, the Printing Industry Center at RIT addresses the concerns of the printing industry through educational outreach and research initiatives. Support for the Center comes from: Sloan Foundation
Rochester Institute of Technology
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Future High Value News Media Audiences
Research has shown that people with above average education levels are heavier consumers of news media than the general population. Typically, those with above average education have more discretionary income than the population at large. Therefore, this segment of the population is of particular interest to news media organizations as well as their advertisers.
As a result, the primary goal of this month's research study, A Qualitative Study of Future High Value News Media Audiences (PICRM-2010-02), by Howard Vogl, M.S., was to study the news media usage habits of future college graduates. The objectives of this research were: - To gain a deeper understanding of the news media usage habits of future high value users.
- To discover new usage patterns that would be valuable to news media organizations, their advertisers, and their supporting businesses.
- To confirm or deny current assumptions about future news media usage habits.
Research Methodology
Two assumptions were made for the methodology of this study. First, after graduation young adults will establish careers and live independently in a community. Consequently, news will have a greater impact on their lives, and their interest in news will grow. Second, the method by which this group consumes news media will continue to fragment among different platforms, locations, and times.
To accomplish the stated objectives the questionnaire was divided into two components. The first was a short survey instrument that asked participants to indicate the categories of news content they consume, such as local news, business, weather, etc. Next, respondents were asked to map the category of news to a specific platform that included print, web, and mobile devices. Finally, respondents were asked to indicate the day of week and the time of day this combination of platform and content was used. In addition to providing useful data, the initial set of mapping questions also served the purpose of focusing the group’s attention on the subject.
In the second research component the participants were presented with a scenario where students were asked to imagine themselves five years after graduation. They were then asked to imagine that they had a satisfying career in a location in another part of the country.
The survey and focus group questions were conducted in person with small groups of college students at the Rochester Institute of Technology. Students were from a variety of majors, and both male and female students participated. In all, thirty-eight students participated in the study.
Findings
Figure 1. Viewing location by media type
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Figure 2. Type of content viewed by media type
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Figure 3. Weekday viewing habits
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Figure 4. Weekend viewing habits
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Figure 5. Viewing times by media type*
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*Respondents were allowed to enter more than one viewing time, so each response is a viewing instance rather than a person.
Scenario Based Questions
The next four questions asked respondents to consider this scenario before answering each question:
Picture yourself five years after graduation from college working in another city. You have a satisfying career and enjoy the place where you live. However, there are national and local news events that will affect the quality of your life.
Question 1a: The community has no print newspaper or newspaper owned website. From what source would you obtain news?
Table 1. Alternative sources of news*
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*Those that gave multiple responses were counted more than once.
In general, respondents said they would look to other sources, regardless of platform.
Question 2a: Draw a simple chart to show how you search through and determine the news content that you will view.
Respondents varied in their degree of searching content from a minimum of three levels to a maximum of six. To chart the most popular search patterns the top three choices for all six levels were selected. Table 2 shows the most common searching patterns. The most likely initial choice was Type of Media followed by News Provider, and then News Category.
Table 2. Common search patterns
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Question 3: Would you make a micropayment (10¢) to view certain types of online content?
Table 3. Would make micropayment for content
The majority of respondents said that they had an expectation of free news on the Internet. Two respondents commented that they already paid for Internet access, why should they pay again for content. Others said they would go to alternative news sources such as television in search of free news. Those that said they would pay indicated that it would need to be something they couldn’t get elsewhere, or related to their career. Others indicated that acceptance of a micropayment would be based on the amount of payment and how often a payment was required. One respondent said he would only pay for content if he received it on an e-reader, but would definitely not pay for online content.
Question 4: Would you make a micropayment (10¢) if content you could obtain free were filtered according to your interests?
Table 4. Pay for filtering of free content
Those that responded negatively indicated that they did not want content filtered because filtering would eliminate differing opinions and news that was outside their scope of viewing. Others responded that filtering was already available for free so why bother to pay. Another concern was that any filtering mechanism would eventually be linked to advertising. Those that indicated they would pay for filtering content said that they would pay if they could obtain better quality news (quality was undefined), or the filter saved time and effort. One user indicated she would accept advertising in return for filtering as long as there was no direct payment.
Analysis of Findings
Location and Time
Two important trends emerged from the data on news media consumption. First, the most common location for viewing news media is in the home. Second, the Internet is the choice of platform young adults use for viewing news media. Even if school and work viewing were combined, based on the assumption that future news viewing at work would be the sum of both, more news would still be consumed in the home. Print media played a greater role away from home, most likely due to availability of print and its low-tech interface. As expected, mobile devices play a greater role when the user is away from home.
News events from outside respondents’ immediate locale were viewed mostly on web sites, while local, art & culture, and entertainment were mostly viewed in print. The likely reason for the difference is that in most markets the dominant print news media is local and has the resources to do a more thorough job of covering local events. On the other hand, major web news organizations have the resources necessary to cover world and national events. Even though weather is a local phenomenon most weather is viewed on the web. Again, this is probably due to the resources available to major weather services. Instances of viewing sports are almost equally distributed between all three types of platforms. This indicates that a portion of users check sports throughout the day regardless of location.
Responses to Monday–Friday viewing habits (Figure 3) showed that during the week the use of print and web media to view different types of content was roughly equal. Interestingly, this presents a different view than Figure 2 where respondents expressed a preference for platform depending on content. Since respondents were asked about their daily viewing habits it appears that even though they have a preferred platform for certain types of content, they nevertheless use multiple platforms to view that content throughout the day. Therefore, content is not the deciding factor viewers use when choosing a platform. Other criteria could include availability of media, time of day, location, and available time. Mobile devices challenged print and the web for viewing weather, sports, and entertainment. One explanation is that mobile devices are more frequently used for updates of continuing events rather than in-depth reading.
Figure 4 showed that news consumption diminishes substantially on the weekend. The use of mobile devices diminishes more than web on print platforms. Since work and school transportation diminishes on the weekend, data supports that the use of mobile devices is closely related to time away from home. In addition, some areas of print viewing gain over the web. This may be related to users having more leisure time on the weekend. Examining viewing habits throughout the day, web viewing of news shows pronounced spikes in viewing at 9:00 AM, 2:00 PM, 6:00 PM, and 11:00 PM. It appears that younger news viewers maintain a regular schedule, much as their older counterparts; however, they choose the web over print as their primary platform.
Analysis of Scenario Based Questions
When students were asked to imagine themselves in a place where there was no local newspaper or newspaper website, the majority of respondents said they would go to television or another website in search of free content. Both print and mobile platforms fared poorly as alternative choices.
Responses varied when students were asked how they filter news content. However, regardless of platform, a general pattern emerged. Half of the respondents indicated the Type of Media was the initial step in their selection of news source. After Type of Media, News Category was the next most important criteria. After a News Category was chosen the selection process came down to news that interested the user, and news that the user considered important based on external forces.
Respondents clearly did not want to make a micropayment for content. Two respondents commented that they did not want to pay for news since they already paid for Internet access. This raised the possibility that young adults are not necessarily averse to paying for news, but as with other platforms there is an expectation of content with platform. Additionally, any micropayment scheme must take into account young adults’ penchant to jump from one platform to another to obtain free news. There was little support for any form of paid news filtering mechanism.
Conclusion
Younger readers still maintain the habits of their elders in consuming news at regular times throughout the day. However, their platform of choice is the Internet. This poses a significant problem for the traditional advertising-supported business model of news organizations because it has become clear that the old advertising model does not work on the web. Shifting costs to end users through any micropayment scheme will be difficult since there is an expectation of free content with Internet access. News organizations may need to move upstream to charge news aggregators and Internet service providers for the use of their content.
It appears that availability of media plays an important role in user choice. The ubiquity of computers in the home makes the Internet the de facto choice for news consumption at home. However, the availability of print media away from the home plays a significant role in its use.
Mobile devices played a smaller role than print or the web in news media consumption. Device availability may have played a role in this result. As younger adults enter the corporate world they will have greater need for mobile devices and, in turn, use them more to consume news.
2009-2010 Research Monographs To read about this research in detail, download the monograph from: http://print.rit.edu/pubs/picrm201002.pdf Research publications of the Center are available at:
http://print.rit.edu/research/index |
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