Foundation Update (Fall 2006 issue)
Cover Story
Lifelong Readers
The NAA Foundation's new study reveals that future readership results when newspapers publish content for teens. By Cheryl Arvidson
Frequently, newspapers that start teen sections are searching for a way to connect with a readership group that has little else to draw it to the newspaper.
“One of our readers’ favorite laments was, ‘You never write about the good kids. All you do is report on kids when they break the law or play a sport. Kids don’t get a shot in the papers,’ ” recalls Kathy Folk, founding editor of Voices, the 11-year-old teen section of the Reading (Pa.) Eagle.
But new research by the NAA Foundation shows another important benefit of teen sections. Newspapers that offer special content by, for and about teens to young people between the ages 13 and 17 forge a bond with those readers that continues as they age.
Although content aimed at teens is not the only predictor of future newspaper readership, the NAA Foundation study is the first to offer statistical data supporting the impact of teen sections. The findings also suggest decisions affecting future newspaper readership are made at a much younger age than many newspapers believe.
“A lot of newspapers focus on young adults 18 and over,” says Margaret Vassilikos, senior vice president and treasurer of the NAA Foundation. “Surveys continuously show that children are making decisions about their reading habits at 13. Eighteen is almost too late.”
The results of the NAA Foundation study of young adults who read teen sections between ages 13 and 17 are particularly important because in the last several years, some newspapers have actually abandoned their teen sections in favor of content perceived as being more appealing to 18- to 34-year-olds, a key demographic group for advertisers.
Research shows that newspapers may be doing precisely the wrong thing by abandoning teen sections, note Vassilikos and Bruce Bradley, chairman of the NAA Foundation Board of Trustees, publisher of The Virginian-Pilot in Virginia Beach, Va., and president/publishing group of Landmark Communications Inc. Instead, they say newspapers should consider keeping teen sections, or starting them.
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Conference session offers details on study
by Aja J. Junior
Did you read the newspaper when you were a teenager?Do you continue to read it now, or have you ever picked one up at all?
An NAA Foundation study conducted by MORI Research of Minneapolis discovered that newspapers containing content for teens have a greater chance of gaining teen readers and retaining them as they grow older.
Brent Stahl, vice president of MORI Research, presented findings and case studies at the 2006 Young Reader Conference July 22-26 in St. Louis.
“Young adults are still settling into their media options ... it’s much better to reach them in their teen years,” he said.
The study focused on 18- to 24-year-olds in seven newspaper markets. Each of the markets had teen sections that were at least 10 years old. The interviewees were required to have lived in their communities for 10 years minimum, in order to allow exposure to the teen sections.
What gets teens to read teen sections in the newspaper? Stahl concluded that the two most common factors are that the content of the section is by, for and about teens, and that teens usually have a personal connection to the articles. A personal connection could be a relationship with the writer, a relationship with a person in the story, or a relationship with the teen section.
Stahl summarized that teen sections are a tool for investment in the future, but they must have the right content. He suggested that newspapers ask teens if the sections are hitting the target, through surveys or focus groups.
Aja J. Junior covered the 2006 Young Reader Conference as an intern for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. She can be reached at aja_junior@yahoo.com.
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| To download a copy of the "Lifelong Readers" report, visit www.naafoundation.org. |
“We’re hoping one result of this study will be a realization by newspapers that if they direct content to readers in their pre-teen and teen years, they can build future readership among 18- to 34-year-olds without additional initiatives,” Bradley and Vassilikos say in an introduction to the NAA Foundation’s report on the research.
“Clearly, there are more factors involved in attracting and keeping young adult readers, but this research shows that a future generation of young readers is there now waiting to be reached. With a sustained and coordinated effort, newspapers can reach it,” they add.
An estimated 220 newspapers across the country have special teen pages or sections, including many that feature teen writers. Newspapers also use content aimed at teens from syndicated services that are selling to more than 800 newspapers across the country.
The NAA Foundation engaged MORI Research of Minneapolis to conduct the study, which focused on seven newspapers with long-standing commitments to teen content: The Buffalo News; The Kansas City (Mo.) Star; The Virginian-Pilot, Virginia Beach, Va.; the Tribune Chronicle, Warren, Ohio; the Standard-Examiner, Ogden, Utah; The State Journal-Register, Springfield, Ill.; and the Reading (Pa.) Eagle.
Researchers interviewed more than 1,600 young adults ages 18 to 24 years old, all of whom had lived in the communities long enough to be exposed to the newspapers’ teen sections or pages. The research was conducted between March and May 2006.
Across all seven markets, roughly half the young adults surveyed (54 percent) said they had read a weekday newspaper in the past week, while 31 percent said they had read a weekday newspaper yesterday. The readership figures for Sunday newspapers were slightly better, with 58 percent saying they had read the local Sunday newspaper in the past four weeks, and 45 percent saying they had read the Sunday newspaper last Sunday.
But when the young adult readers who were exposed to newspaper content for teens during their teen years were separated out, the readership figures increased dramatically.
In the large and small markets, 75 percent of those who read the teen section between the ages of 13 and 17 are now reading the weekday newspaper at least once a week. That compares with 44 percent who did not read the teen section as teens, but who are now reading the weekday newspaper at least once a week.
Other research has shown that teens who read newspapers are likely to read newspapers as adults. This survey, however, found that teen sections provide a significant additional boost for later reading.
- Only 37 percent of the young adults surveyed who had read neither the teen section nor the newspaper in general as teens currently read the weekday newspaper at least once a week.
- Current readership is considerably higher at 63 percent for young adults who had read the newspaper but not the teen section as teens.
- Current readership is much higher still at 78 percent for young adults who had read their local newspaper and its teen section when they were 13 to 17 years old.
This pattern is the same with other standard readership metrics for weekday and Sunday newspapers, including average issue reading. The additional gain from reading teen sections ranged from 11 to 15 points on readership scores.
“It is a big industry challenge to get more readers as our older readers die off,” says Patrick Coburn, who recently retired as publisher of The State Journal-Register. “This is one response. It is not the total response, as far as readers are concerned, but it couples with our online efforts.”
The seven newspapers in the study fall into two circulation categories: either under 75,000 or above 150,000. The same readership patterns were evident regardless of market size. However, in the smaller markets, weekday readership was slightly higher than in larger markets, and Sunday readership was slightly lower.
The findings build on previous studies that identified factors such as parental influence and the use of newspapers in school as an educational tool as predictors of future newspaper readership.
The teen content study found that the five factors for 13- to 17-year-olds that best predict future newspaper readership, in order of influence, are:
- Read the local newspaper in an average week;
- Ever read the local newspaper’s teen section;
- Parents regularly read the newspaper;
- Parents regularly encourage reading the newspaper; and
- Newspapers are ever used in classroom discussions.
“You can introduce children to news, the same as with the NIE program,” says Stanford Lipsey, publisher of The Buffalo News. “You need to get a paper in their hands somehow. Readers early on are liable to stay readers later.”
The State Journal-Register’s Coburn also notes a connection between Newspaper In Education and teen content.
"You need to get a
paper in their hands
somehow.
Readers early on
are liable to
stay readers later."
Standford Lipsey, publisher,
The Buffalo News
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“When we started [The Voice], it was definitely intended to try to hook the younger readers into the newspaper habit,” Coburn says. “It dovetails nicely with our NIE efforts. We try to get the kids really early on, and then carry them through in a participatory basis with The Voice. It has been very successful in both those areas.”
The study also found a similarly strong connection between teen sections and later use of the newspaper’s Web site. Reading the newspaper during the teen years increases the odds of visiting the Web site as a young adult. For example, for past 30-day usage, the gain is eight points (from 24 percent to 32 percent). Reading the teen section as well, however, adds another 10 points for past 30-day usage of the Web site (to 42 percent).
Personal relevance drives teen section readership. Survey respondents who read the teen sections said the greatest appeal was content written for teens, by teens or about issues relating to teens. Thirty percent of those interviewed – and an equal number of men and women – said “teencentric” content was the main reason they read the teen sections.
Publishers and youth editors at the newspapers featured in the NAA Foundation survey say that their teen sections were launched to reach out to teens and to improve coverage of issues relating to teens. But once those sections were started, the newspapers discovered other benefits.
William S. Flippin, president and publisher of the Reading Eagle, notes that his newspaper’s teen section, Voices, “helps us keep in touch with young people and lets them write and do their thing and see it in the paper.”
And in the present, Voices is building “a lot of goodwill toward the newspaper,” says Lisa Scheid, editor of the section. “It also shows the young people that the media isn’t this monolithic thing. They are now part of the media.”
Toni Guagenti, editor of 757: Teens Cover the Code at The Virginian-Pilot, says the section “gives kids something to relate to, and takes us to a market we are not hitting. It is also a training ground for teens. They don’t have to go into journalism. The world needs better communicators and better writers.”
At The State Journal-Register, “we find that the parents are reading that section just so they can know what is going on with their kids,” Coburn says. “Parents really like it because they are interested in the issues that the kids are talking about. That is a benefit that certainly was not anticipated.”
Cheryl Arvidson is a freelance writer based in Falls Church, Va. She can be reached at carvidson@cox.net.
