Print still in favour with today’s tech generation

June 2011
By Katherine Page, technical consultant for the National Readership Survey

The latest findings from the National Readership Survey (NRS) show how print publications remain central to the media repertoire of the most avid technophiles.   It is often assumed that reading in print is being abandoned in favor of digital content, particularly by the young.  While readership habits and preferences are certainly changing, NRS shows how the most active users of technology and mobile devices remain keen readers of newspapers and magazines. 

Since 2009 NRS has tracked the use of new technology, along with detailed questions about Internet behaviour.  Around 13% of the population have been identified as ‘technophiles’, using four or more of seven items including  smart phones, e-book readers, high definition TV, Wi-Fi networks and wireless streaming.  

The NRS sample offers a large and reliable base to analyse such developments: 36,000 in-home interviews are conducted each year on a continuous basis.  The random sample is particularly well-suited to representing those hard-to-reach demographic groups in the vanguard for new technology.  Indeed, it is for this reason that the NRS sample is used to provide the Establishment Survey data for the UK Online Measurement Company (UKOM).

The 6.4 million technophiles identified tend to be young, well-educated and affluent, with a net personal income 36% above the average.They use the Internet everyday and consume content across a range of digital platforms, but are also enthusiastic readers of print.   They have a repertoire of around 25 different newspapers and magazines, compared to an average of 17, and qualify as ‘average issue readers’ of eight of those publications. In contrast, they are more likely than average to be light consumers of commercial TV and radio. 

Print readers have a particular affinity for mobile technology, which is why it represents both an opportunity and a threat for publishers.  One of the strongest trends that the NRS tracked between 2009 and 2010 is the 46% increase in the use of phones and hand-held devices to access the Internet, fuelled by the growing ownership of smartphones. 

Smartphone users are also above average readers of print.  They are particularly drawn to magazines such as Stuff, GQ and The Economist and, from the newspapers, The Financial Times, Independent on Sunday and London Evening Standard.

It is the same story for e-book readers and tablet computers, though these still have a relatively low (but growing) penetration among the population as a whole.  NRS has added further questions about these devices, and is also now tracking the use of apps to access publisher content – the first findings will be published shortly.

Most tellingly, NRS findings contradict the myth that the young are doing all their reading online and via mobiles.  The 2.3 million technophiles aged 15-24 are ‘average issue readers’ of eight different newspapers and magazines in print, compared to the all-adult average of seven titles.  Of course, this is the age-group most likely to be glued to their mobile phones, but even among the heaviest phone users readership of newspapers and magazines in print is still well above average.
Print readers have always been early adopters, and these new technologies are no exception.

Young Women’s readership under the spotlight

May 2011
By Katherine Page, technical consultant for the National Readership Survey

As magazines such as free women’s weekly Stylist focus on launching digital brands   you may see it as evidence that many, especially the young, have stopped reading magazines in print.  However, this is not the case according to Katherine Page, technical consultant for the National Readership Survey.  National Readership Survey (NRS) data shows that in fact young women are still reading magazines, though their tastes are different from those of their predecessors. 

There is no doubt that the media consumption habits of young women have changed considerably over the last decade, and, yes, teenage magazines are no longer in their heyday.  But that doesn’t mean that the young are doing all their reading online and via mobiles.

A look at the NRS to find out what young women are reading in print is instructive.  The NRS doesn’t include very young teenagers, but surveys those aged 15 or over.  NRS  data show that back in the year 2000 the magazines 15-24 year old women were particularly likely to read (relative to women as a whole) included teen titles such as Just 17, 19, B magazine, Bliss, Looks and Sugar.

Fast forward a decade to 2010 and the NRS ‘top ten’ for the latest generation of young women looks very different.   Only two titles feature in the top ten for both 2000 and 2010, namely More! and Company.  The new entrants include Look, Glamour, Reveal, Love It!, Heat, Star, New! and Closer, most of which have been launched in the past ten years. Together they enjoy a gross readership of almost four million among15-24 year old women, according to the latest release of NRS data. This list of titles points to the real story of what has happened to young women’s readership. 

Readership of monthly magazines has decreased overall among this demographic in the last ten years.  Even then, there are some notable exceptions, such as the success of Glamour and the fact that Vogue has increased its 15-24 year-old readership by 50% since 2000.

However, across the same period the gross number of readership claims young women make for weekly magazines has almost doubled.  It really is a case of swings and roundabouts, as the loss of readership for women’s monthlies is more or less exactly compensated by the increase in gross average issue readership claims for the weeklies.  And that’s before one takes into account the fact that weeklies appear four times more often than monthlies.

Clearly the development of the celebrity magazine market in the last ten years has been a huge factor, despite the fact that this type of content is very freely available from other sources.  It is women in the 15-24 age bracket who have driven the success of the titles launched in that period.
It is not the case that young women read less than their older counterparts – overall 15-24 year old women claim to be average issue readers of seven print titles, including newspapers, exactly the same as women aged 25+.

Furthermore, it is those 15-24 year olds who spend most time on their mobile phones who are particularly likely to be above average readers of print, especially weekly women’s magazines.
For the majority of young women the print ‘magazine experience’ is still a relevant one, regardless of how else they consume media.  What has changed is the content that they want to read, and the magazines that provide it.

Joining up the dots

April 2011
By Katherine Page, technical consultant for the National Readership Survey

It’s becoming increasingly important to join up the dots between the measurement of on- and offline audiences.  For publishers there’s also a growing demand to know how print and online fit together, and what other emerging platforms, such as mobile, will add to reach. This has become a key development objective for the National Readership Survey (NRS).

Publishers need to know how their overall on-/offline audiences are developing, and the relationship between the two.  Furthermore, there is considerable scope to develop brand display advertising online – this type of advertising still accounts for just 5% of total online expenditure, according to the IAB. 

As ever, coherent and trusted audience estimates will be an important tool to develop the market. At the same time, there is a frequent cry that there are already “too many numbers” in the market, particularly as those numbers don’t always tell the same story. 

For the NRS, the issue is how to provide a measure of website audiences in conjunction with the ongoing print readership estimates. This will provide audience reach and profile data for publications and their websites, separately or in combination, so as to assess the net reach of any desired combination.  The end objective is to provide a single integrated database for planning across print and digital platforms.

The NRS has already carried out a number of experiments in this field, but there is a limit as to what can be achieved by asking respondents to recall the websites that they have visited.  Respondents remember sites that they visit frequently, but won’t remember all the sites they’ve visited, and all of the visits that they have made, particularly when they come to a site in an indirect manner.

The NRS is also very conscious that adding yet another set of figures to the market is less than desirable, even setting aside the costs of generating yet another set of online audience estimates.  Hence the creation of “Project Fusion”, which aims to make best use of existing online audience data, while ensuring that the quality of the print readership estimates is ring fenced. 

In essence, Project Fusion will involve fusing website audience data onto the NRS readership database. After a series of presentations from both UKOM/Nielsen and comScore, UKOM Nielsen was appointed to supply the data for an experimental fusion.  The test is being be carried out by RSMB, who are specialists in this field, and is currently being evaluated.

Of course, there are considerable challenges in such an exercise, not least reproducing an appropriate level of duplication between the print and online audiences for each publisher. This will be the key to the success of the project if the combined database is to be used for reach and frequency planning.

Despite the undoubted challenges, it is well worth pursuing Project Fusion - all the indications are that publisher websites have considerable potential to extend audience reach.