NNN Perspectives

As reported by The Hill, Restore Our Future, a super-PAC supporting Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign, will run full-page ads attacking Newt Gingrich in the New Hampshire Union Leader and The State in Columbia, S.C., the most prominent newspapers in the next two primary states.  This move comes on the heels of an ad attacking Romney placed by the Newt Gingrich campaign in the New Hampshire Union Leader on January 4^th.  For more information on the Restore Our Future campaign, please refer to this article.

A survey of over 5,000 households by Pulse Research this past year found adults who read newspapers online are a highly desirable audience to advertisers.

On average digital newspaper readers are  44 years old with an average household income of $65,480. This high household income correlates to the greater likelihood to buy large-ticket items, with 7.6% of digital newspaper readers planning to buy a home and 8.4% planning to buy a new car in the next year from this fall.

Read more about the digital newspaper readers demo profile here.

A recent Washington State University study found that frequent readers of a daily newspaper tend to be more trusting of others than those who read newspapers less frequently.   The newspaper fortifies feelings of trustworthiness within a community and when a community establishes trust, the population is more likely to support each other to create a better place to live.

The study also suggests that not all forms of community participation are equal in terms of building social trust. Youth-related activities correlate with higher levels of trust while participation in political groups, protests or boycotts are associated with lower levels of trust.

To read more on local market studies, read the article here.

Even the OWS movement has their own print paper. The Occupied Wall Street Journal which is written and printed solely because of donations, is a four color broadsheet that offers insight into the ins and outs of this monumental movement. David Carr of The New York Times says, “..it is somehow reassuring that newspaper still has traction in an environment preoccupied by social media… Newspapers convey a sense of place, of actually being there, that digital media can’t.”  Newspapers continue to remain strong in their role as the most credible news source for news.  A recent Pew report states the “Newspapers (both the print and online versions, though primarily print) rank first or tie for first as the source people rely on most for 11 of the 16 different kinds of local information asked about – more topics than any other media source.  So although the cynics out there say that ‘newspapers are dead’, ink will always be an integral part of peoples lives.  I like to know what’s going on in the world and the last place I’m going to get my news is a Twitter feed or a thread in a forum. I’m going sit back and relax and open my newspaper.

Read more about reports of how newspapers are still thriving.

The holiday season is in full swing and ad campaigns to drive consumer purchases are front and center of marketer’s minds.  To reap good tidings, they must understand the behavior of affluents and be able to reach them with their product messages.  According to Office Pulse research conducted by MediaPost, spending by affluent consumers (those earning more than $100K) will determine whether the retail season is a boom or bust.  The study reveals that this year affluents are buying mobile devices, Satellite TVs, DVRs, gaming systems, athletic clothing and more.

Advertise in newspapers to reach this exclusive and elusive set.  After all, consumers earning $100K+ are newspaper readers with 86% of adults reading printed newspapers, while 39% of them read it online (AdAge, 2011 Mendelshon Affuent Baramoter).

Read more about the projected spending habits of affluents this holiday season here.

Nearly 3 out of 4 (70%) of respondents in the 2011 Local Media Usage and Engagement Study, conducted for NNN by Nielsen,  said that they use a mix of traditional and new media to consume their local news and information. Only 1% use new media while 30% use traditional media alone.  As the information world transforms, newspapers are leading the way for advertisers with new opportunities on emerging platforms including Mobile and Tablets.

When advertisers are seeking to place ads in multiple local markets, the flexibility and reach of newspaper media remains a compelling  choice.

by Melissa Verburg

I have always thought that intelligence is attractive and it seems that the NAA shares my sentiments with their fresh “Smart is the New Sexy” campaign.  With the emerging prevalence of younger readers using social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter as sources for information and news, the NAA is utilizing these sites to promote promoting the value from reading newspapers in any form. Users are driven to share their personal experiences with newspapers through their local papers’ Facebook and Twitter accounts – with the hashtag #smartsexy – to spread the word and serve as conversation starters.

The campaign coincides with the latest release of digital readership numbers showing that traffic to newspaper websites was up 20% from the same time last year, according to comScore.  “The newspaper brand remains very strong in the hearts and minds of consumers,” Caroline Little, NAA president and CEO, said in a statement. “The campaign speaks to the many reasons people value their newspapers, and to the various platforms through which newspapers deliver that value.”  I thought at first glance the ad may make you giggle slightly thinking about newspapers and sexy in the same sentence, but the tagline is indeed catchy and the concept thought provoking and what more can you want from an ad?  Pretty smart execution if you ask me.  I bet the artists who created it read their newspaper, those smart AND sexy people.

In the past year, 20% more adults are visiting their local newspaper website. In the third quarter, 110 million unique visitors (over a third of all adult Internet users) came to their newspaper website despite the introduction of paywalls at several sites including The New York Times, Dallas Morning News and The Baltimore Sun. With so many options for people to get their daily news, it comes down to a question of quality vs. quantity. Would you rather have an aggregate news site with little to no original content or a publication tailored to your hometown with in depth coverage written by local journalists?  Most people want their news to be accurate, impactful, educational, and relevant. As publishers invest in their websites, they are reaching key audiences in growing numbers, including:

• The affluent:  3-in-4 adults (74%) in households earning more than $100,000
• Elusive Young Adults:  58% of 18- to-34- year-olds; and
• Families:  62% of Internet users with children at home

As the users grow, so do the advertising dollars. Second quarter figures released from the NAA show that online advertising accounts for 14% of all newspaper advertising dollars through the first half of 2011.

Source: NAA

Procter & Gamble’s Prilosec brand saw a 20% sales lift as a result of a local newspaper campaign in a test conducted recently for NNN by SymphonyIRI.

In comparison with control panels, local newspaper advertising delivered a 20% sales lift in drug outlets and a 15% sales lift at mass outlets vs. control stores. The Prilosec newspaper ad campaign ran four times in 11 newspapers in nine markets with a 4-color full page ad.

Symphony IRI used a Modeled Store Group Analysis to isolate and quantify the impact of these newspaper print ads on the Prilosec sales rate at mass and drug stores.  Sales were compared in test stores (in markets with the newspaper ad campaign) and control stores (in markets without the newspaper ad campaign); the IRI methodology also carefully controlled for price, merchandising, distribution and competitive activity that might otherwise have influenced the results.

To learn more about how your brand can participate in future NNN IRI Research, contact Lynn Lehmkuhl, SVP Sales at llehmkuhl@nnnlp.com

When confronted with so many options to consume the newspaper: print, online, mobile, tablet...one loses their focus to actually CONSUME the content. This is what was found in an acedemic study presented at the annual meeting of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication. The paper "Medium Matters: Newsreaders' Recall and Engagement with Online and Print Newspapers", created by colleagues at the University of Oregon set a group of readers of the print edition of the New York Times against the Web-Times readers to read the content for 20 minutes and then take a short survey.

It was found that print folks “remember significantly more news stories than online news readers;” and they “remember significantly more topics than online newsreaders;” as well they “remembered more main points of news stories.” Headlines were the only portion of the content that the print and online readers came to a draw. A print story is less distracting and scattered than its digital counterpart, which is surrounded by Adsense ads, links to other articles, etc. I too feel like I have a bad case of adult ADD whenever I sit down to enjoy my paper online. Advertising follows suit.  In a survey done for the NNN conducted by the Nielson company, advertising in local newspapers was found to be less intrusive than on the internet when asking consumers of local media that are interested in at least four local news and information topics, and was also found to be the most interesting and credible over all other local media.

Overall, although newspapers may not beat out digital media in ways to get information conveniently, they still have a significant role in people lives to obtain and retain information.