Newspapers provide strong reach as large numbers of adults access news either in print or online.
Many have written newspapers off. It’s not considered to be a viable advertising medium by some. Newspaper advertising revenues, down 45% in the last four years, seem to support this.
However, Scarborough’s latest Integrated Newspaper Audience study revealed that 74% of American adults either read a newspaper or visit a newspaper Web site at least once a week. Even though the Audit Bureau of Circulations shows a 14% decline in audience of the 125 largest newspapers since 2004, newspapers still reach 171 million Americans.
Erik Sass reported in the November 17th issue of MediaPost that newspapers deliver even higher readership among the well-heeled and well-educated. He cites that the Scarborough study indicates that 79% of white-collar workers, 82% of adults with household incomes over $100,000 and 84% of college graduates have read a newspaper in the past week.
It must be noted that a growing number of adults access the print medium online. A Nielson Online study for the Newspaper Association of America indicates that unique monthly visits to newspaper websites have increased from 41.1 million in 2004 to 71.8 million in 2009.
So even though there is much written about the death of American newspapers, they still provide a great reach opportunity. With the combination of space advertising and online advertising, newspapers can still be effective at reaching a large audience, especially among the more affluent and well-educated. And in smaller markets, community newspapers can even provide stronger audiences. Newspapers still have a place in the media plans of local hospitals.
Americans receive their news in new and various ways. Certainly this affects media strategies. But newspapers can’t be written off. Either in print or on the web, it’s still “read all over”.
