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25 Nov 09 Why the data between the newspaper readership and and advertising revenue is not complementing each other? why is such a huge gap?

Two recent studies: one done by Scarborough Research about newspaper readership and another by Newspaper Association of America has quote to different yet related information about the condition of the newspaper business in the United States.

The latest Integrated Newspaper Audience study by Scarborough Research has found that nearly three-fourth (74%) of American adults still read newspaper. Not only that, the readership of newspaper is found to be higher among educated and affluent class – indeed, this is not surprising, but despite all thee the revenue of newspaper is falling by 28% as revealed by the Newspaper Association of America in its recent data.

Findings of Scarborough Research

  • 79% of adults with white-collar jobs read newspaper in print or online.
  • 82% of adults that has household income of more than $100,000 read newspaper in print or online.
  • 84% of people who have completed their graduation or have any advance degree reads newspaper in print or online.

According to the Newspaper Association of America total advertising revenue is down by 28% in the third quarter of 2009 in comparison to the revenue in the third quarter of 2008 (from $10.1 billion to $6.4 billion).

What does this mean?

This mean that despite users being confident about the content provided in the newspaper, advertisers are not playing ball. They are not investing. In my view there could be two reasons for that:

  • Advertisers have started to believe that one who reads newspaper do not pay any particular attention to the ads inserted in it, or they are too forgetful to remember anything once they put the newspaper down.
  • They have become cautious of greenery shown by Madison Avenue, as unlike the Internet, they have no way of knowing who is viewing what.

The newspaper industry needs to learn to provide measurable value, if it does not want to become extinct.

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