Message From Michael -- November 26, 2007

SWEEPS

THE AVERAGE AMERICAN

TO READ OR NOT TO READ

LOCAL TV NEWS VIEWING

RADIO LISTENING

NEWSPAPER READING


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SWEEPS: Three days left. Okay, now, who knows what’s wrong with that statement? All of my diary clients do, of course. That’s because we always preach that you have to maintain a marketing and news push AFTER the official end of sweeps because nobody fills out their diary the day of. It’s always a day or two later, and that’s why it’s important to remind them who they were watching.

THE AVERAGE AMERICAN: Based on a survey by Harris Interactive, you might find the picture of the ‘average’ American to be a little different than you would expect. Americans spend much more time reading (29%) than watching television (18%) and almost as much time going to the movies (7%) AND even fishing (7%) as they do on the computer (9%). Family is still important to them, but they don’t spend nearly as much time with family and kids (14%) as they do reading or watching TV. And they’re more likely to garden (6%), go walking (6%), or playing team sports (6%) as going to church (5%), although they’re equally likely to exercise (5%) or golf (5%) as go to church. That’s how we split the 20 median hours of leisure time we have each week. The Harris Poll of 1,052 Americans shows we’re also spending less time working (with a median of 45 hours a week) than we did three years ago (when it was 50 hours).

The poll makes a point of showing the differences between now (2007) and then (2004) or even way back then (1995). For example, not surprisingly, the amount of time spent on computer activities has risen steadily from 2% in 1995 to the present 9% and watching sporting events has risen four points since 2004 along with exercise (up three points) and crafts (up three points). But when you average out the time spent (as OCD me did) on various activities since 1995, you find that while there has been a great deal of fluctuation year to year, the average time is pretty consistent. For example, reading averaged 28.6% while TV watching averaged 20.1% and family time averaged 13.7%; and that’s true for most of the activities (except fishing which at 7% this year is down from the average of 9.9%).

TO READ OR NOT TO READ: The Harris Interactive survey runs contrary, to a degree, to a report issued this month by the National Endowment for the Arts which found that Americans are spending less time reading, that reading comprehension skills are eroding and that “those declines have serious civic, social, cultural and economic implications.” The report particularly decries the drop in reading (for pleasure, that’s the key) by young people, noting that nearly half of all Americans aged 18 to 24 read no books for pleasure. Or put another way, the percentage of young Americans who read a book “not required for work or school” has declined significantly in the last ten years, although I should note the percentage is still over half for all age groups. The report makes the point that employers now rank reading and writing as the top deficiencies in new hires. It cites a report by The Conference Board which found that employers ranked four out of five (81%) job applicants with a high school degree deficient in written communication skills and more than one out of four (28%) college graduate deficient in such skills.

LOCAL TV NEWS VIEWING: According to a survey by The Media Audit, viewers in the South and Midwest are heavier local TV news viewers than those in the West and Northeast. In a survey of 11 news time periods in 88 markets, the research firm found that adults in the Midwest (defined as the West Coast through Colorado and New Mexico) are most likely to view a late evening LOCAL news program on NBC (36% more likely than the average U.S. adult) followed by prime time LOCAL news on Fox (25% more likely) and early morning LOCAL news on Fox (25%). Adults in the South (defined as Texas and Oklahoma across to West Virginia and Virginia) indexed above the national average in all 11 measured local news programs with the most popular being CBS early morning LOCAL news (32% more likely than the average U.S. adult to watch), followed by CBS late evening LOCAL news (28%) and early morning LOCAL news on Fox (24%).

RADIO LISTENING: The same group, The Media Audit, says the radio format with the greatest overall reach in adults 25-54 is Country with 13.3% of those listeners, followed by Contemporary Hit Radio AND News Talk (both with 12.2%) followed by Classic Rock (11%) and Public Radio (10.3%). If you’re looking to reach households with children living at home, Contemporary Christian formatted radio ranks number one (70.1%) even though it only ranked #16 out of 30 in Adults 25-54. The second most popular format in those households is Contemporary Hit Radio (66.4%) followed by Dance CHR (64.5%), Hot Adult Contemporary (64.4%) and Country (64.4%).

As a side note to this, MfM reader and radio consultant Jimmy Risk argues in a recent article that radio has always been a social network “of sorts” to generations of listeners and he says radio could build a digital ‘community’ using its dial position and website address and “reclaim the hipness factor.” It’s an argument I have made for local television. As he puts it, “local ratings and revenue are there for the taking by leveraging a parallel universe of digital bodies under an umbrella known as a social network.”

NEWSPAPER READING AND REVENUES: They’re both up… sort of. Actually it’s the Online versions that are up. According to The Media Audit (Again), the top 25 newspaper websites increased 15.4% in terms of average unique monthly visitors while the combined print and online audience increased 5.9% (indicating, therefore, a drop in the print version). Meanwhile, trade industry publication Editor and Publisher cites a study commissioned by the World Association of Newspapers which says 2006 was “a turning point” in the newspaper Web business model for many of the world’s newspapers. The study reports that “mature online operations” are generating 40% and higher profits for newspapers whose print operating profits have fallen to 23%. Of course, at this point, Internet operations make up less than 10% of a newspaper company’s revenues in the U.S. and only about 5% outside the U.S. The study says it is unlikely Online income will make up for the lost print income any time soon. The report also warns that ‘Internet pure play” businesses such as Google and Yahoo “now threaten local newspaper online advertising to an alarming degree.” That may explain why so many newspaper groups have partnered with Yahoo and other such players. The Associated Press reports that the Columbus Dispatch and 16 regional newspapers owned by The New York Times Company have joined the Yahoo consortium, bringing its total number to about 415 dailies and 140 weeklies. Interestingly, neither the New York Times nor the co-owned Boston Globe has joined the consortium. Nor have Gannett or Tribune, the #1 and #2 newspaper publishers by circulation.

As a side note to all this, I found it interesting when an executive with Morris Publishing visiting the Grady College made the point that one of the drawbacks of partnering with groups like Yahoo is that the pure play businesses do not require registration for people to view the various ads and articles. That means the local newspaper does not have a way of measuring this part of its Online viewing so that it can put together a total picture of audience reach. This brings me back to that Media Audit report. The analysis lists out the Top 10 Daily Newspaper Websites, starting with The New York Times which averages 3,146,900 monthly unique visitors, giving it a combined total (Print & Web) of 4,972,600. It’s followed by Newsday.com (1,798,400 and 3,017,000), ChicagoTribune.com, WashingtonPost.com, NYdailynews.com, LATimes.com, NYpost.com, SFGate.com and The Atlanta Journal and Constitution’s AJC.com. BUT of those sites, only two make it to the Top 10 Newspaper Websites based on percent of market reached: The Washington Post website which reaches 44.9% of the local market and the AJC website which reaches 35% of the local market. The top newspaper website in terms of local market penetration is the Times-Picayune out of New Orleans which reaches 47.4% of the local market. Even more interesting is that when the Print and Web versions are combined, the New Orleans newspaper has an unduplicated 18+ reach of 86%. The Buffalo News comes in second with 84.6% reach of the market, followed by the Omaha World Herald (83.7%) and the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette (81.8%)

As a side note to the side note, and to partially explain why I spent so much time on the LOCAL reach of the combined Print and Web products, Harry A. Jessell writes on the TVNewsday.com website, “with the possible exception of the daily newspaper, TV stations dominate local media today. To continue to do so, they must operate and promote the best local Web sites and mobile services. If they don’t, others will.” The article (brought to my attention by Peabody director Horace Newcomb) notes two companies have changed their names: Morgan Murphy Stations became Morgan Murphy Media and NBC Universal Television Stations has become NBC Local Media Division. He notes the analogy with passenger railroads failing in the 50’s and 60’s because, say analysts, they saw themselves as being in the railroad business when they were actually in the transportation business.

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