Commentary
Newspapers Deliver; Consumers Take Action
- by Jack Loechner , Staff Writer @mp_research, April 27, 2011
According to data from Frank N. Magid Associates, newspaper advertising is the leading advertising medium cited by consumers in planning, shopping and making purchasing decisions. 52% of all adults identify newspapers as the medium they use to help plan shopping or make purchase decisions. 72% of all adults regularly or occasionally read newspaper preprints, and for Sunday inserts, this figure increases to 90% of all adults. Over a 30 day period, 8 in 10 adults acted on newspaper preprint advertising.
John Sturm, NAA President and CEO, says the study shows that ... "more than all other media, adults continue to turn to newspapers to inform shopping decisions that lead to purchases..."
Highlights include:
o Four-in-five adults (79%) of those surveyed said they took action as a result of newspaper advertising in the past month, including:
- Clipping a coupon (54%)
- Buying something (46%)
- Visiting Web sites to learn more (37%)
- Trying something for the first time (20%)
38% of adults, who identify themselves as newspaper non-readers, recalled other forms of engagement in the past week, including checking sales in local stores, clipping coupons, comparing prices, checking movie or TV listings and classified, and also various forms of editorial content. This unofficial exposure overall adds another 13 percentage points to the newspapers weekly reach among all adults and is considered as a bonus beyond the normal audience.
Advertising on local newspaper websites ranked second (behind e-mailed store or product information) among online options for advertising sources, beating general interest websites, or portals, paid ads that appear on the right side of the search engine screens, ads on social network pages, and ads on mobile devices
Newspapers also lead other media on the following advertising benefits:
o Checking for regular shopping (41%)
o Having advertising from stores that you regularly shop (36%)
o Being the most believable and trustworthy (36%)
o Being the best for bringing sales to your attention (38%)
o Being the most valuable in planning shopping (36%)
o Preferred for receiving advertising information (36%)
The report shows that other media trailed well behind newspapers as the primary medium for checking advertising. The Internet is closest, but trailed newspapers by seven percentage points.
Primary Medium for Checking Advertising | |
Medium | % of Respondents |
Newspapers | 35% |
Internet | 28% |
Ads received in the mail | 12% |
Television | 9% |
Catalogs | 7% |
Magazines | 3% |
Radio | 1% |
None of these | 5% |
Source: NAA, April 2011 | |
For more information, please visit the NAA here.
Jack Loechner is the Editor of The Center for Media Research's daily Research Brief. You can reach him at jack@mediapost.com.
Who commissioned the study? Are the questions worded to give newspapers an edge>
The demise of the printed newspaper is premature. As a media junkie, I begin my day reading newspapers. Apparently, I'm not alone.
Thank you for posting this.
NAA is a nonprofit organization representing nearly 2,000 newspapers and their multiplatform businesses in the U.S. and Canada. So I think there may be a bias here.