Americans still believe news found in Newspapers is more reliable than online news. With Americans spending more time online than doing anything else. The availability of free news online is one of the biggest hurdles that traditional media sources like Newspaper and Magazines face in maintaining revenue. Despite the prevalence of media online that vast majority or people still turn to newspapers for their news on a regular basis and see newspapers as being more reliable than other forms of media.
According to the Newspaper Association of America “ The vast majority of U.S. adults, 164 million (69%), read newspaper media content in print or online in a typical week. “ and even though the majority of people prefer to browse for news for free a large portion of people are still paying for their news in some form. “ A recent poll shows that 40 percent of U.S. adults ages 18-34 pay for at least some of the news they read, whether it’s a print newspaper, a digital news app or an email newsletter.” (yahoo news) This means that they value staying informed by reputable sources and expect that cost would be a factor in staying up to date with the best stories.
The reputation of the publisher pushing the content really dictates whether or not a person is going to pay for their news from that source. The long term reputation of a publication’s brand is based on quality of articles that they are willing to publish. This means being more critical about what types of stories go into that publication. Reputable free online publications can make it difficult to find enough quality content to fill pages each day, but maintaining a constant stream of quality content is key in maintaining readership both in print and online.
Teens and young adults are definitely aware that anyone can anything online and can sound like the know what they are talking about and understand that almost anyone can become “You Tube famous” College graduates especially want to stay informed and know what is going on in the world so that they can be putting the best professional foot forward while they are hunting for jobs or chitchatting with new co workers over coffee. Holding a copy of USA TODAY or the Wall Street Journal and being able to talk confidently about current events adds that extra bit of substance.
While the likelihood is still that your older readers will be the ones picking up the paper copy. There is a growing trend even among younger readers to gravitate towards newspaper because the news there seems more legitimate and trustworthy than what is online. In 2012 voters were polled to find out where they were getting their news about the election. contrary to what people thought it turned out that 80% of voters 35 and older are regular readers of newspapers in print or online. As it turns out on average 60% of people from all ages turn to newspapers either online or in print to get the information they are after. ( people press center) For more information about newspaper advertising please check out this additional post.