Online and Radio Use Goes Up, TV and Newspaper Use Goes Down

Monday, October 19, 2009

By: Susan Gunelius

Are you advertising your small business in the right places?

According to a September 2009 study conducted by Opinion Research Corporation for ARAnet, people are spending less time watching television and reading newspapers and more time getting news and information from the Internet and radio.  The results of the study are below (source: MarketingVox).

Media Use Rankings 2009

  • Television: 31.1% (down from 34.7% in 2008)
  • Daily newspaper: 19.4% (down from 23.5% in 2008)
  • Radio: 19.4% (up from 16.5% in 2008)
  • Online: 14.6% (up from 12.7% in 2008)
  • Weekly community papers: 4.4% (down from 5.1% in 2008)
  • Free shopper newspapers: 2.9% (up from 2.2% in 2008)
  • Magazines: 2.1% (up from 1.6% in 2008)

Compare the usage rankings above with credibility rankings from the same study below.

Media Credibility Rankings 2009 on a Scale of 1 to 10 (1 = not at all credible, 10 = extremely credible)

  • Television: 6.5 (down .1 from 2008)
  • Daily newspaper: 6.3 (no change from 2008)
  • Radio: 6.3 (up .3 from 2008)
  • Online: 5.7 (up .1 from 2008)
  • Weekly community papers: 5.4 (up .2 from 2008)
  • Magazines: 4.9 (up .3 from 2008)
  • Free shopper newspapers: 4.3 (up .8 from 2008)

The study also sheds light on media usage patterns among specific demographic groups.  For example, college graduate, high income (over $100k per year earners), Hispanic, and 18-34 year-old study respondents receive more news and information from online sources, and do so more frequently, than other demographic groups.  Furthermore, college graduates and high income respondents to the survey were more likely to trust online sources than other demographic groups were.

What does this tell small business owners?  First, making a shift in marketing investment from traditional media such as newspapers is a smart move.  However, that shift is very dependent on your target consumer audience.  Just because everyone else is moving advertising dollars from newspapers to online media doesn’t mean it’s the best choice for your small business.  Consider the results of this study as they relate to your target audience.  If you sell products targeted to an audience of senior citizens, then sticking with newspaper advertising is certainly a better option for your business than online advertising would be.  However, if your target audience is made up of college educated twenty-somethings, then online media investments could be a much wiser use of your advertising budget than newspaper advertising would be.

The takeaways from this study are twofold:

  1. Understand media shifts are happening. There is no denying it as more and more newspapers and magazines close their doors or move to online publication only.  You need to be aware of the shift and understand how it affects your business.
  2. Understand how your audience uses media. No two target audiences are alike, so no two business’ media plans should be alike.  Consider your consumers and learn what media they are using and believe to be credible sources of information.  That’s where you need to be advertising.