Message From Michael
November 10, 2010
IF YOU TORTURE THE NUMBERS LONG ENOUGH
NEWSPAPERS VERSUS TELEVISION
THE FACEBOOK WITCHING HOUR
IF I WERE A RICH MAN
IF YOU TORTURE THE NUMBERS LONG ENOUGH: As the saying goes, they will admit to anything. That phrase comes to mind after reading the 247WallSt./ Harris Interactive poll on news and media consumption. The release by Harris Interactive argues that “traditional media is in trouble.” The release by
It is significant that fewer (57% versus 67%) of the younger demo say they prefer to get their news in more traditional ways. That becomes even more significant when you look at the question about getting “almost all my news online.” Two thirds (65%) of the younger demographic say that’s true of them while only half (50%) of the general online population say that’s true of them. But then again, when asked how often they go to different news sources when looking for news, the number one choice is….. local television news, with three-quarters (76%) of the general online population saying they go to local TV ‘all the time’ or ‘occasionally’ and two-thirds ( 63%) of the 18-34 demographic picking local TV. Local newspapers came in second in BOTH groups, with two thirds of the general population picking newspapers and more than half (56%) of the 18 to 34 year olds. Very interestingly (to me at least) “websites that aggregate different news sources” came in fifth for both groups (49% for overall and 52% for 18-34.)
OBSERVATIONS: None of this diminishes the basic point of the report about the changes in media consumption habits. If anything it validates (in my mind, at least) the point made in a previously reported Pew News Consumption study that much of the younger people’s news consumption comes through grazing. They seem to ‘stumble’ on to news rather than specifically looking for news. I say that because of the way the question is worded: “when you are looking for news, how often do you go to each of these news sources.” That may explain why news aggregation sites came in fifth. It should also be noted that when asked about the amount of time spent on the various media, consistently more than half say it has not changed. Visiting online news and information sites did indeed show the greatest increase for the overall population(28%); Interestingly enough, that was roughly the same for the 18-34 year olds (29%). Actually it was the 35-44 demographic that showed the greatest increase in online news usage (34%). That same demographic also had the highest percentage (59%) going to news aggregation sites.
Lastly, a disclaimer: The Harris poll relies on an online panel of people who have agreed to take these surveys. That may explain why, when you read the fine print (known as the methodology) Harris Interactive says they avoid the words “margin of error” because, they say, all surveys and polls are subject to multiple sources of error which are hard to quantify. Or, as one of the leading researchers here at the Grady College of Journalism put it, that just means in today’s technological environment, the results are still basically a SWAG – Scientific Wild Assed Guess.
NEWSPAPERS VERSUS TELEVISION: Somewhat related to the above article, I give you two sets of numbers. Numbers recently released by the Audit Bureau of Circulations show the circulation for the top 25 newspapers continues to drop. Only one newspaper, the Wall Street Journal, showed an increase and it was a meager one – 1.82%. With a circulation of 2,061,142, it is the nation’s most popular newspaper, ahead of USA Today with 1,830,594 (down 3.66%) and The New York Times which had a circulation of 876,638 (down 5.52%). By way of comparison, and yes it’s probably unfair, for the week of October 25, NBC’s nightly news cast averaged 8.06 Million viewers, ABC had 7.4 Million and CBS had 5.5 Million. In any case, back to the newspaper top ten list, it’s Los Angeles Times (600K), The
THE FACEBOOK WITCHING HOUR: According to a report by social media management firm Vitrue, the best time to post on Facebook is 3 p.m. on Wednesday. Seriously. Of course it’s a little more complicated than that. After analyzing two months of Facebook traffic, including 1.6 Million posts and 7.6 Million comments, the researchers say there are three peak periods during the day: 11 a.m., 3p.m., and 8 p.m. EST. And let me emphasize, that’s during the work day. The authors speculate that the 3 p.m. activity is a combination of factors, including lunch time on the west coast, break time on the east coast, and kids coming home from school. In a similar vein, 11 a.m. could be a combination of the start of the work day on the west coast and the break before lunch on the east coast. Then, for whatever reason, on Wednesday, there are more interactions than any other day of the week. It just beats Tuesday (by 7%) and Thursday (11%). Weekends, not too surprisingly, are the lowest. The report makes an important distinction between posts and comments. For example, Monday is actually the biggest day for postings (286,000) followed by Tuesday (252K), Wednesday (248K), Thursday (234K) and Friday (230K). Sunday came in next (203K), with Saturday last (184K). But people were in a more ‘talkative’ mood on Wednesday, which had the most comments (1.528 Million), followed by Tuesday(1.414 M), Thursday (1.371 M), Friday (1.322 M) and Monday (1.214 M). Oddly, Saturday generated more comments (841 K) than Sunday (799 K). The report titled Facebook Management makes the point that the combination of posting, commenting, liking and sharing is part of a two-way conversation and that it’s all about engagement. In case you have any questions about the importance of Facebook use, the report quotes the Alexa research group which says Facebook reaches a third (35%) of all Internet users on any given day with the average user spending 55 minutes a day on the social networking site.
IF I WERE A RICH MAN: No, no, it’s not Tevye, and I don’t know if he has to work hard, but Rush Limbaugh is the top money maker amongst political pundits, according to Newsweek and a research firm called Wealth X, pulling in $58.7 Million. Eat your heart out, Katie Couric. Far back in second place is Glenn Beck with a mere $33 Million, followed by Sean Hannity ($22M), Bill O’Reilly ($20 M), Jon Stewart ($15 M), Sarah Palin ($14 M), Don Imus ($11 M), Bill Clinton ($7.7M), Keith Olbermann ($7.5 M) and at number ten, Rudy Giuliani ($7 M). Stewart cohort Stephen Colbert tied at #13 with $5 Million. The rest are the ‘usual suspects’ –Bill Maher ($4 M), Joe Scarborough ($3.5 M), Bob Woodward ($2.5 M). I shouldn’t probably admit this, but there were quite a few Millionaire pundits I didn’t recognize, including: Jorge Ramos, the Mexican news anchor for Noticiero Univision, although there is another news anchor for Telemundo, New York with the same name; Fareed Zakaria, who hosts CNN’s foreign affairs show and is Editor-at-Large of Time magazine; Bob Barnett who I suspect is the Washington lawyer and political strategist and not the wrestler; and Eduardo “Piolin” Sotelo, a Mexican radio personality who hosts a morning radio talk show in Los Angeles.
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