Newspapers still rated high on content, advertising

ORLANDO — The Newspaper Association of America released the findings Tuesday of a landmark study by Nielsen that compares the ability of major media, including television, radio and social media, to engage audiences. The study looks at consumer engagement with media content – and importantly, compares each medium’s ability to engage consumers with advertising. This side-by-side advertisement scoring will aid marketers and agencies in assessing media by their ability to engage consumers who seek and respond to advertising not just by audience numbers alone.

The study, underwritten by NAA and released here during NAA mediaXchange 2013, surveyed 5,000 adults on 11 different metrics for engagement, including trust and ethics, how connected media make people feel, the value or inspiration they add to life, and the effectiveness of advertising.

“In this era of media fragmentation, advertisers want an environment in which their messages are noticed, sought and responded to,” said Caroline Little, NAA president and CEO.  “This first-of-its-kind national study by Nielsen clearly demonstrates that newspaper print ads get noticed more than all other media and drive the highest purchase intent. And, newspaper media also demonstrated the highest level of engagement.”

Key findings from the study include that newspaper media – print and online – scored the highest of all media on overall engagement. Where newspapers and their websites stood out most was in the efficacy of advertising. On a scale of different metrics of advertising effectiveness – including “usually notice ads,” “likely to purchase” and “best place for Black Friday shopping”— the average score among U.S. adult consumers for newspaper media consistently exceeded those of all other media. When looking, for example, at the aggregate advertising scores, newspapers and newspaper websites together delivered a 12 percent larger advertising-engaged audience than the overall average for all media, and 16 percent larger than that of social media.

This study also looked at consumers’ engagement with content produced by these various media channels. The study found that Americans consume a wide range of media, but their feelings about the trustworthiness of what they consume, the extent to which it adds value to their life and whether they respond to advertising varies substantially by source. Newspaper media, while not accessed as often, scored higher on most of the metrics for engagement, including trust, public service and all four measures of advertising efficacy.

NAA is a nonprofit organization representing nearly 2,000 newspapers and their multiplatform businesses in the United States and Canada. Members include daily newspapers as well as nondailies, other print publications and online products. Headquartered in Arlington, Va., the association focuses on the major issues that affect today's newspaper industry, such as public policy/legal matters, advertising revenue growth and audience engagement across the medium's broad portfolio of products and digital platforms. More information about NAA and the industry is available at www.naa.org.