• by Wendy Davis  @wendyndavis, March 23, 2005

In another significant milestone reflecting changes in how consumers use media, the Internet now rivals two of the most traditional media used by local shoppers - newspapers and yellow pages - to make their purchase decisions. The findings, which come from a study released Tuesday by The Kelsey Group and ConStat, Inc., indicates that the Internet now equals newspapers and has surpassed printed Yellow Pages, as a resource for local shoppers.

The study, based on a February telephone survey of 500 U.S. adults, found that 70 percent of households now use the Internet to hunt for local merchants and stores--up from 60 percent in October 2003. That's the same percentage of households that now use newspapers to find the same local shopping information, which is down from 73 percent in 2003.

Yellow Pages, meanwhile, fell from the dominant local shopper medium to third place, behind both the Internet and newspapers, dropping to 62 percent of households in 2005 from 75 percent in 2003. "The decline in printed yellow pages use was significant among households with Internet access at home, but no growth was seen for this medium among households who are not online," concludes the study, which also found that the average number of printed Yellow Pages directories present in U.S. households declined to 2.4 in 2005 from 2.7 in 2003.

Meanwhile, Kelsey analysts predicted that based on current trend lines it's only a matter of time until the Internet surpasses newspapers for shopping research. Online users are increasingly seeking information about local retailers or professionals from the search engine giants--engines such as Google. More than half of respondents--55 percent--said they used large search engines to research shopping, up from 47 percent in October 2003. But users have also turned away to a small extent from narrower sites, such as DoctorDirectory.com and MasterPlumber.com, as well as from local directory sites like Citysearch.

The report also revealed that 74 percent of households now have Internet access at home, up from 67 percent in October 2003. Nearly eight out of 10 households--79 percent--have wireless phones, up from 71 percent 17 months ago. And almost one out of three households--31 percent--have Web access via wireless phone, up from 26 percent in October 2003.