• by Jack Loechner , Staff Writer @mp_research, January 29, 2002

Sometimes, extremely focused (maybe niche) demographics are valuable to a marketer who knows the audience to whom he wants to appeal. To that end, an online survey (admittedly self-serving, but apparently accurate) recently came to our attention, and might be a useful window to your market challenge. The important "take away" is that there are a variety of advertising location alternatives for buyers that may be obscure and take some probing to find.

The study was done by an online presence describing its mission as "an online magazine and information resource where pressing issues are subject to examination and debate. Overall, we seek to engage our community of readers in problem solving, community action and awareness of current events in the United States and abroad."

The December 2001 survey results, among some 20,000 Internet users receiving the magazine, indicate the emergence of a new type of news consumer: engaged, well informed and Web savvy.
- 86% use the web as a primary source of news and information.
- Six out of ten spend more than 11 hours a week online
- of those, half spend more than 20 hours a week online

To supplement Web information:
- 55% read daily newspapers,
- 51% listen to public radio
- 48% watch television
- 44% read magazines of opinion

The readers describe their political attitudes as:
- 33% progressive
- 17% liberal
- 11% independent
- 9 % radical

The most important issues that concerned these respondents were:
- Civil Liberties: 90%
- Human Rights: 88%
- Civil Rights: 88%
- U.S. Foreign Policy: 83%
- Economic Fairness: 81%
- Environmental Health: 81%

The respondents actively visit many sites. But when asked how "useful," the results were surprising. For example, 83% visit CNN.com, but only 17% find it useful. Yahoo.com is visited by 78%, but only 23% find it useful.

For this group, popular sites visited most were:
- Onion.com 66%
- Salon.com 64%
- TheNation.com 55%
- MotherJones.com 54%
- WorkingforChange.com 48%

But perceived to be the most useful for their needs were:
- TheNation.com 32%
- Onion.Com 31%
- MotherJones.Com 29%
- Salon.com 29%
- WorkingforChange.Com 27%

You can read more.