• by Wendy Davis  @wendyndavis, July 6, 2005

Conventional media planning wisdom holds that ads positioned at the beginning of media content -- the front-of-the book in print, or the first position in a TV or radio commercial pod -- generate the greatest recall, but a new academic research study suggests that when it comes to online publishing, the middle of an article may in fact be better remembered.

The study by the University of Missouri-Columbia School of Journalism and University of Kansas School of Journalism and Mass Communication, however, find that online readers give more credibility to ads that appear at the start of an article--below the masthead and before the byline.

For the study, "Ad Placement in E-Newspapers Affects Memory, Attitude," which recently appeared in the Newspaper Research Journal, the authors questioned 114 undergraduates who were shown news stories containing ads that appeared at the beginning, middle, or end of the article.

"When brand awareness is the goal, advertisers should select the middle location. When image enhancement is a goal, the beginning location may be the best choice," states the report.

The report's authors found cause for concern about whether ads appearing at the beginning of a story would lessen readers' trust in the publication; the authors speculated that readers might confuse ads appearing before a byline with editorial content.