There is no question that technological innovation and the recession have changed the way that U.S. consumers shop. However, did you know that three-quarters of all U.S. adults have read a newspaper in print or online in the past week? That means that there were more than 170 million adults who read a newspaper last week. These figures come from MORI Research, a preeminent media research and consulting firm based in Minneapolis. MORI has conducted proprietary strategic and tactical research for newspaper, magazine, television, and Internet media clients in more than 250 markets throughout North America and Great Britain.
MORI conducted this study for the Newspaper Association of America, and their published findings may give you second thoughts about reducing or discontinuing newspaper advertising. Some of their results were published in the New London Day, a Connecticut newspaper, in June 2010.
MORI’s findings included the following:
- 59% of adults ranked newspapers first as the media used to help plan shopping or make purchasing decisions.
- 80% of newspaper readers report looking at advertising when reading the paper.
- 41% of adults say that newspapers are the medium used most to check out ads, more than all electronic media combined.
- 77% of newspaper readers took an action as a result of a print newspaper ad in the past 30 days.
The bottom line is that people do, in fact, continue to read the newspaper and its advertising, and continue to make business decisions as a result. Therefore, it makes no sense to reduce or eliminate newspaper advertising from your marketing plans.
