Newspaper audience growing

By John Sturm

With football in full swing, newspapers have taken a tip from America's gridiron greats: It is critical to play a strong offense.

Instead of letting others do all the talking about our business, newspapers are telling their story in a big way, with new research and a series of advertisements that speak to the strength of newspaper Web sites and the enduring reach of our print products, which continue to attract nearly 105 million readers every day.

The facts are strongly on our side, and we have a great story to tell about the powerful audience newspapers attract across multiple platforms.

Newspapers continue to build their audiences online. Against old concerns that new digital media threaten “traditional media” like newspapers, the latest study of Internet use by Nielsen Online showed that newspaper Web sites capture a whopping 70 million visitors each month, a valuable consumer audience that relies on their trusted newspaper brand for news and perspective no other medium can match.

But newspapers' success is not limited to the digital space - a new study from Borrell Associates predicts a return to growth in newspaper advertising next year, and many commentators have written about the relative strength that smaller community newspapers have shown throughout the recession. Wall Street also took note when a number of big newspaper companies indicated they are beginning to see signs of recovery in advertising spending.

A new MORI Research survey found that 82 percent of adults took action as a result of newspaper advertising - anything from clipping a coupon and making a purchase to visiting Web sites to learn more. That cause and effect relationship will provide an important foundation for our medium's recovery as advertisers look to unlock the value found in newspaper advertising.

In fact, the data also reveals that other media trailed well behind newspapers as consumers' primary medium for checking advertising. The closest competitor - the Internet - trailed newspapers by 20 percentage points (41 percent vs. 21 percent). Other highlights include:

l Nearly six in 10 adults identify newspapers as the medium they use to help plan shopping or make purchase decisions

l 73 percent of adults regularly or occasionally read newspaper inserts

l 82 percent have been spurred to action by a newspaper insert in the past month.

John F. Sturm is president and chief executive officer of the Newspaper Association of America in Arlington, Va.