• by Wayne Friedman , December 5, 2008

Getting your marketing message out in TV newscasts is not as effective as with other media and entertainment.

A new report from Experian Simmons notes that only 28% of the audience of an average news program, Web site or magazine gets valuable information about products and services advertised there. Simmons examined some 1,000 sites of TV broadcast shows for its study.

Other forms of media and entertainment--especially escapist forms such as scripted TV shows--are where consumers are more likely to be engaged and score more highly when it comes to getting information from advertisements.

Still, those shows that are quasi-entertainment/news shows--Comedy Central's "The Daily Show" and "The Colbert Report" and NBC's "Saturday Night Live"--score better than real news in the "personal timeout" area. That's what Experian Simmons calls an "escape for consumers who like to relax and unwind while reading or watching" those sites/programs.

Breaking it down category by category, news magazines rate higher for "trust" than online and TV news, but news Web sites are considered more "life enhancing," where consumers feel they learn something.

The most talked-about sites/shows--what the study calls "social interaction"--include "The Drudge Report," The New York Times, MSNBC's "Countdown with Keith Olbermann," Fox News' "The O'Reilly Factor" and The Wall Street Journal.

Google News was the least likely to generate any type of social interaction. Next to last was MSNBC's "Morning Joe," followed by Yahoo News, and the "CBS Evening News With Katie Couric."

But "trust" and being talked about don't go hand in hand. For example, the most-talked-about "Drudge Report" scored 12% above average for social interaction, ranking No. 1 in that area. But Drudge scored 10% below average for "trust," where it ranked No. 46.